Deadlines, Ramping Up, and Independence

It's been a couple of months, so I think it's time for another update! I've been busy with admissions, preparatory courses, and other summer teaching and administrative duties. When I was working in industry, the thought of having "summers off" as an academic was very appealing. After 4 years in academics, I can say (at least in my case), that myth has been debunked.

Now that our final official deadlines for fall applications are behind us, we're busy getting ready for classes in the fall. I just finished teaching my first completely "online" course, to help some of our incoming MIS students better understand fundamental information systems concepts. Now we're in the middle of the second "IT Toolkit" preparatory course, which met on Saturday June, 26, and will meet again on Saturday, July 10. This course is focused on ramping up on Visual Basic and SQL, to help students gain proficiency with a couple of fundamental skills that will prove useful in the coming semesters as they begin graduate coursework.

We just received our last few BI Certificate applications, and will be working on finalizing admissions in the coming weeks for incoming Professional MIS and BI Certificate students. A few more applications may trickle in over the next couple of weeks, and we will continue to look at them as long as we have space available in the classroom -- we are down to just a couple of remaining seats, with quite a few applications left to consider.

Going into this holiday weekend, celebrating the independence of the United States of America, I am thankful to live and work in a nation that gives us the freedom and encouragement to pursue our dreams and to make the most of what we have.

Program Admission Status - Full-Time and Professional

Just a quick status update on admissions: we are no longer accepting full-time MIS applications for the Fall 2010 term. All available full-time positions have been filled, and we have finalized the waiting list in case any of our admitted students are unable to attend.

The Walton Professional MIS program is still considering applications for Fall 2010 at this time. The deadline has passed, and we have received quite a few applications, but we do still have a few spots available and will continue to consider applications until the available seats are filled.

Full-Time MIS Applications

The application deadline for the full-time MIS program was February 1, and from what I can tell so far we have a great group of applicants, both in size and quality. We have received about 70 applications, and expect to review those and make initial admission and assistantship decisions in the next couple of weeks.

Our full-time MIS program attracts some of the best and brightest students from universities around the world. Graduate Assistantship positions will be much more difficult to award this year, because we have so many great applicants and only a limited amount of funding available.