Transitions

Fall 2011 Homecoming starts from October 1 to Sunday, October 9. It is one of the Tech traditions. Few homecoming festivities on any campus can rival Michigan Tech’s for zaniness and fun! A lot of activities are held around the campus. Besides to the football games and Hockey games, there are an amazing parade, an exciting cardboard boat race, competitive challenges, and many other events that promote Husky spirit. For more detailed schedule, check Michigan Tech’s Home Coming website (http://www.homecoming.mtu.edu/2011/index3.html).

At the end of the week, it is the family weekend, another tradition of Tech. Students’ parents and family members are invited to the Keweenaw Peninsula to explore campus, attend cultural events, cheer the Huskies to victory, and tour the area to view the vibrant fall colors. It is a weekend filled with fond memories of Michigan Tech and family fun and also a great opportunity to visit with your parents and family. And check out the Family Weekend website (http://www.mtu.edu/compass/parent/family-weekend/) for detailed information.

For transfer students, this is a great chance for you to get involved into Michigan Tech and promote Husky spirit. Come and enjoy the Homecoming and Family Weekend.

With different education system, transfer students may be confused by the grading scale at Michigan Technological University. According to the grading information from Register’s Office, the grading policies are shown below.

Grade Point Average (GPA) — The grade and credit earned for any course taken by a student at Michigan Tech will become part of the student’s permanent record and will be used in the computation of the University grade point average (GPA).

The GPA is computed by dividing the grade points by the grade point hours and truncating the result. Grade point hours include those course credits with grades of A, AB, B, BC, C, CD, D, F, and X. For example, if you get A in a 3 credit course and AB in the other 3 credit course, the GPA will be (4*3+3.5*3)/ (3+3) = 3.75, where A means 4 grade points and AB means 3.5. Any performance below a GPA of 2.00 is considered a grade point deficiency.

Regular (grade points/credit)       Michigan Tech (grade points/credit)
A             4                                                       A           4
A-           3.7                                                    AB         3.5
B+          3.3                                                    B           3
B             3                                                       BC        2.5
B-           2.7                                                    C           2
C+          2.3                                                    CD        1.5
C             2                                                       D           1
C-           1.7                                                    F            0
D+         1.3
D            1
D-          0.7
E            0

From the data above, Michigan Tech’s grading scale is a little bit different with the regular one. Instead of having A- and B+, the grade awarded by the university is AB, which includes the A- and B+ in the same scale. And the grade E in the regular system is replaced by F at Michigan Tech. Because the grade E means effort unsatisfactory—no credit, no grade points; given for courses taken under the Pass-Fail option. A grade of E is given for work equal to letter grades CD to F.

Click here for more information.

As a transfer student, you may have the question how long it will take me to graduate from Michigan Tech. To know your progress, you can get the information from your department advisor or run Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) by yourself.

Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) is located on Students Records of Student Services on BANWEB (http://www.banweb.mtu.edu). The information about the DARS is on the website (http://www.mtu.edu/registrar/students/major-degree/dars/ ) here and the ‘tutorial’ is on the right side of the page.

Undergraduate students and their academic advisors are the primary DARS users. Currently DARS reports are not available for students who started at Michigan Tech under the quarter system or for graduate students. Audits may be run at any time, and the audit showing progress toward program completion will be generated each time a request is made. Basically DARS provided students the progress toward degree and/or program completion, which includes transfer, exchange, and AP credit. Though the system has been made to ensure its accuracy, the final confirmation of degree requirements is subject to department and university approval. Thus, it is important for you to meet your academic advisor to discuss the graduation requirements.

For me, there isn’t any information about DARS provided when I just transferred here as an international transfer student. It took me a long time to find out the Degree Audit Reporting System. It is such a powerful tool that you can easily check your progress toward the program completion. Moreover, DARS plays an important role in the registration process, which leads you to the right direction of completing program. With DARS, I am clear about how many transferred credits from my previous institution can be used for my program here. Also the estimation about my graduation can be performed based on the system.

I strongly suggest transfer students to get familiar with Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) and have a great plan at Michigan Tech.

Though it is Monday today, everybody in the campus is excited about the coming Winter Carnival starting at 10 p.m  Wednesday February 9. For transfer students, this is a really great time to enjoy your life here at Michigan Tech, such as building statues, have fun with your friends. The schedule of this year’s Winter Carnival can be checked online, the website is  http://www.mtu.edu/carnival/schedule/.

Because Michigan Tech often registers more than 200 inches of snow in a season, it is really a waste to let this abundant natural resource melt.  Thus Michigan Tech students get together in an annual celebration of our beautiful and tough climate. Gradually the celebration becomes our tradition as Winter Carnival. The Winter Carnival theme of this year is Thousands of Pages Unfold in the Bitter Cold.The picture showing below is one of the statues under construction.

One-nighter Statue construction begins at 4:00 p.m  Wednesday. It is fun to join the activities that night because people around the campus usually get together to celebrate.

As a transfer student, I joined my community I-house to build a Mahjong statues last year. Building the statues brought me a lot of fun and this speaical experience became my treasure memory at Michigan Tech. I am so excited about the coming Winter Carnival and hope we all have fun.

Have a nice Winter Carnival, transfer students!

Cheers.

Hello Transfer Students!

This blog will be used as a tool to help you get accustomed to Michigan Tech! Our campus is full of many resources and opportunities, and we want to help you find them!

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Today’s Temperature: 4 degrees Fahrenheit / -16 degrees Celcius

Today’s Wind Chill: -10 degrees Fahrenheit/ -23 degrees Celcius

Snow in the last 24 hours: 3.5 inches

Did you know that this month we have already received nearly 5 feet of snow? (57″ as of today!)

For many of you, this is your first winter in the Keweenaw — and we hope that you love it as much as we do!  The Keweenaw Research Center (KRC) is a sattelite office that is employed by Michigan Tech that engineers for real world clients.

The KRC provides us with a most excellent technical review of current weather conditions, including the amount of snow fall in the past 24 hours and month.  Check out the website here.

If you have ever seen the ‘snow thermometer’ up in the Keweenaw (click on the picture below to view the whole thermometer plus the information board that sits next to it), you know that tremendous amounts of snow fall annually in our region.  Have you ever wondered about snowfall records?  The Michigan Tech Office of Alumni Relations actually has an online historical record of snowfall that goes back for more than a century.  How cool is that? View the snowfall records here.

Finally, the Michigan Tech Alumni Association is piloting their first Snowfall Competition.  View the website for this contest here.  After reviewing snowfall records, take a guess at how much snow will fly this season.  If you can accurately predict the entire season, you can win a Michigan Tech Winter Survival Kit!

At any rate, I hope all of you stay warm during the coldest days of the season. Remember to always appropriate winter apparel, especially while walking outside for long periods of time.

Cheers!

–Rebecca

Keweenaw Snow Thermometer