The Florida State University College of Information

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Getting Started

At times, applying to graduate school can seem like an overwhelming and confusing task. We hope this walk-through will get you started. The goal is to help orient you to the resources on this site and to reduce your anxiety about the application and admission process as well as some other related issues. If there is something we do not cover in this document or on our website that you would like us to include, please send your comments and suggestions to our staff at: grad@lis.fsu.edu. The main campus of FSU in Tallahassee, Florida, USA is in the Eastern Standard Time zone.

We will try and answer the questions most frequently asked. Speaking of questions! Although we have tried to anticipate your information needs, you might have some additional questions that apply to your special circumstances. We provide professional program advisors who can give you guidance about our programs now and throughout your course of study.

If you have questions, please contact the Graduate Student Services. They are generally in the office on FSU's main campus in Tallahassee, Florida: Monday thru Friday from 9am - 5pm. The website is available 24 hours a day, but Graduate Student Services are not.

Email lets you make an inquiry regardless of the time of day or day of the week, and it also will result in a written response. We try to respond to email as rapidly as possible. Some days there are hundreds of emails and it can take a couple of days to work through them. Other days when there are just a few, we may be able to get back to you the same day.

Let's begin by giving you a general orientation to the resources we have developed for prospective students. We will start with information about the college, our faculty, the field of Information Studies and some emerging professions. We will then turn to the degrees and certifications we offer, the time and cost of a degree, financial aid, and guidance some topics usually raised by prospective students. We will close the first section with information about online learning options open to you in our programs and about computer issues.

After we go through the general information, we will then walk you through the application and admission process and address and touch on some questions and topics. You might also find useful the university-wide resources provided for prospective students by The Florida State University. They can be found at: http://www.fsu.edu/prospective/

A General Orientation

About the College and the Faculty
The College of Information has one of the largest programs in the country and has a long history of accomplishment in the field. About The College of Information and the Faculty List provide a good background against which to consider our programs and our research interests. Our vision statement says it all:

People and Information: Making Vital Connections

The discipline is quite diverse. Find about it in brief by consulting our Overview of the Field of Information Studies and our discussion of two diverse areas to pursue in Digital Age Information Professions.

Degrees and Certifications
We offer a wide array of degrees described in an Overview of Degrees and Certificates. Each degree and certificate is discussed in depth in pages linked from the overview and from the Table of Contents. In case you were wondering, all our master's degrees are accredited by the American Library Association (ALA)

Course Offerings
We offer courses all year long. In the Table of Contents, under the section Courses, you will find course descriptions by program, and schedules of current and projected courses.

How long does it take to do the program?
A Master's Degree can be completed in less than three years, although in the case of the Juris Doctor/MS and the Museum Certification it will take a little longer. The Specialist Degree can be completed in less than two years. The PhD varies depending upon the course work and the research phase, but the typical range is three to five years. Nevertheless, it must be completed within five years of completing the preliminary exam. The School Media Certification without a Master's Degree can be completed in less than two years, assuming you are already certified to teach. Otherwise you will probably add another year.

How much is this going to cost me?
In addition to the usual books and supplies, we provide a list of hardware and software requirements to help you estimate those costs. Students who are on-campus and those who are doing the program at a distance pay different fees. Tuition information is discussed for In-state and Out-of- State students on-campus, and for Florida Residents and Non-Residents students at a distance. There is also a program called the Academic Common Market, that aims to eliminate out-of-state tuition for specific programs for students from certain states.

Financial Aid should be discussed with a counselor in the University's Financial Aid Office. However, some aid is available through the College of Information, and we provide an Overview of those opportunities, which include Scholarships, Assistantships, and Fellowships.

We also provide links to information about some Scholarships, Assistantships, and Fellowships administered by The University that might be of interest to you. In addition, we provide descriptions and pointers to additional sources of financial aid including several Scholarships in our field that are awarded by outside organizations. We provide these general referrals to financial aid information, but it is up to you to explore them.

Guidance
You can also find some helpful guidance about exceptions to the admissions requirements, transferring credit, preparing to register for classes, and other topics under the Guidance section of the Table of Contents.

Not Just Another.edu

Online Learning Options
Some courses are only offered face-to- face on-campus and others are only offered online. Some courses are offered in both modes. You may want to take some online courses, and we provide a good discussion of online learning options available to you at the College.

If you have never taken a web-based course, you may wonder how you do a course online. The online courses aren't particularly complicated, but you do have to learn some basics about interacting with people and the technology. Fortunately, you learn this and practice it at the required orientation to the program. If you have basic computer literacy, which is discussed below, then you will have no problem catching on to online courses. What kind of things do you do in an online course? Demo site.

Technology: Learn It and Use It

Computer Issues
General computer literacy is all that is needed to do the program. You can obtain a comfort level in these skills by taking a local adult education course at a community college, or a workshop. By general literacy, we mean you can use the basics of a word processing application such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. You need to be able to use email and be able to use an Internet Browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape to find information and move around on the Web (Comptuer Application Competencies). There are some requirements for hardware and software for students in our programs.

Admissions and Application Process:

You will first apply to the graduate school at the University. At the same time, you will also submit a supplemental application to the College of Information. Detailed information about admission and application to each graduate program is spelled out under: U.S. Students and International Students. All the applications are online and can be downloaded.

After the University has processed the application they will notify you in writing. The College is also notified and we receive the application package from them. The application is double checked by our program assistant, who is the custodian of the records. The program assistant will contact you if we need additional information.

After everything is determined to be in order, the application is passed along for review by the graduate admission officer and faculty members who make recommendations about acceptance. A Dean then reviews the recommendations, and a letter of acceptance or other disposition is sent to you.

Applications are processed in this manner once a month, and the process takes about two weeks. There is a six (6) to eight (8) week turn around from the time the University receives the application. You can check on the status of your application by contacting Graduate Student Services. Of course, if you have any questions, please contact the Graduate Student Services.

Below we address some of the most frequent topics of inquiry related to applications and admission.

When can I start the program?
Most of our MS/MA students begin their studies fall semester. If space is available, we may admit MS/MA students to begin the program in the spring.

We admit Specialist degree students for fall and spring enrollment. Only under exceptional circumstances are Specialist students accepted for admission to the summer term.

Ph.D. students are admitted for the fall semester only.

Can I do the programs part time?
Yes, with the exception of the residency for the PhD which is full time.

Deadlines for admission applications are a frequent source of questions and information about them can be found under the link: Deadlines for Admission. Application for the different types of financial aid have a variety of deadlines that can be found on the pages listed above under Financial Aid. Some of these opportunities have deadlines as early as December of the year prior to enrollment, so you need to plan accordingly.

Letters of recommendation
You need three letters of recommendation for the PhD and Specialist Degree programs, but you only need three names and contact information (no letters) for the Master's Degrees.

Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
You must take the GRE and submit the scores with your application regardless of your grade point average (GPA). If you are not familiar with the GRE and you want to know what you need to do to take it, please see the extensive information provided on the official Educational Testing Service website at: http://www.gre.org You take the GRE online at a specified test center. You can no longer take it in paper and pencil form in the U.S. You can obtain a variety of study guides for the GRE and you can take preparation courses offered by private vendors.

Exceptions
There are some exceptions to the admissions requirements. If you are in doubt about your qualifications for admission, please read through these exceptions. They may apply to you.

Orientation - Required
Everyone is required to go through a comprehensive online orientation at the College of Information. It will help you feel you have a good understanding of what is expected, and it is an opportunity to meet people with whom you will be working and learning.

Well, that is all we can think of to share with you at the moment. We hope you will consider how our programs can help you enhance your success in the digital age. As we mentioned before, we welcome your feedback on how we might improve these resources for our prospective students. Please send your comments and suggestions to our staff at: grad@ci.fsu.edu