Enhancement of quality of student life.

SEAS will partner with GSAs and student clubs of all departments to sponsor a welcoming social event for new graduate students early in the Fall semester of each year (e.g., Buffalo Harbor Cruise). The graduate Academic Programs Committee will coordinate this activity.

SEAS will hold the welcoming event every Fall semester.

Enhancement of global career prospects.

Invite company/university representatives to recruit.

We will partner with University Career Services to enhance participation of companies with interest in hiring graduate students in SEAS disciplines. The focus will be on jobs outside of the United States. This job fair will be held every Spring semester.

Enhancement of quality of incoming doctoral students.

Each department selects their own students.

To enhance the quality of incoming doctoral students, numerous top-off scholarships will be offered to support incoming doctoral students during the summer of their first year of study. Awardees are selected every Spring semester.

Enhancement of yield from admissions.

Each department selects three student ambassadors who contact admitted students via email/phone calls and answer student-life questions that they may have.

Student ambassadors are selected every Spring semester.

Enhancement and recognition of quality of work during graduate education.

Each department submits two posters which are authored and prepared exclusively by students.

SEAS holds a student poster competition every Spring semester. Each department submits three papers that are authored and prepared exclusively by students.

The papers are judged by the directors of Graduate studies and the GSA presidents of all departments. The three best posters receive a SEAS poster award.

The poster competition serves as a recognition of doctoral student progress and also as a recruiting event for new graduate students.

Career development for doctoral students.

Each department nominates up to 3 doctoral students. The colloquium runs in late spring with a teaching component in early Fall.

This is a half-day workshop that consists of a number of panel discussion and aims at encouraging doctoral students to consider a faculty position as a career opportunity. Participants are also encouraged to attend a two-day teaching workshop titled ''Target your Teaching'' run by the Office of Faculty Affairs.

Enhancement of quality of incoming graduate students.

Each department selects their own students.

A scholarship will be offered to UB senior scholars to encourage their consideration of graduate education in SEAS departments. The awardees are selected every Spring semester.

Enhancement of graduate review process and continuous quality monitoring.

Creation of a graduate vote system for all SEAS departments.

This is an electronic review system for graduate students applications, similar to the system used by NSF for panel proposal review. It is currently being used by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and its usage will be expanded to include all other SEAS departments by the end of 2010. The Graduate Vote software feeds off data through the GradMit system and allows for the scanning of transcripts and other supporting material, i.e. data currently not available on GradMit.

A full implementation of Graduate Vote will allow efficient review of graduate student applications. It will also improve significantly the responsiveness to applicants, as we will be able to advise them in a timely manner of their application review status and/or missing elements in their application package. In addition, the Graduate Vote system will facilitate efficient monitoring of the quality of student applicants both at the department on key qualifiers of student applicants (e.g. GRE and other test scores, home institutions etc.) for future statistical analysis of student data.

Monitoring and improvement of student life and academic experiences.

Three sets of surveys are in place: (i) An incoming student survey whose goal is to learn about experiences of graduate students in the admissions process; (ii) a survey of students who decline UB engineering admission, whose goal is to learn why admitted students choose not to come to UB engineering; and (iii) an exit survey, whose goal is to learn about a student's experiences while they were at UB engineering.

Incoming Student Survey |  Admitted Student Survey |  Exit Survey