Parent Newsletter November 2007
Dr. Dawn Remmers, Director, University Advising, Student Success and Testing Services, University of Texas at Arlington
As the fall term begins to wind down, students on campus are beginning to look at spring schedules and the inevitable question of how to pay for classes becomes reality. This month’s newsletter focuses on financial aid. If you have questions about keeping the financial aid your student already has in place, or if you are applying for financial aid to help pay for your student’s next semester classes, be sure to read this month’s “Topic of the Month” to find all the information you may need.
This time of year also brings students into the office of their Academic Advisor. Most students need to see their advisor to ensure they make the right course selections; or, it may be time to try career exploration, if your student has not decided on a major. Has your student decided on a career path? “Career Corner” talks about career exploration opportunities and this month’s calendar highlights many on-going events in Career Services.
Also, UT Arlington is taking a proactive step toward protecting your student. Our “Did You Know?” section talks about an upcoming vaccination program.
Finally, as we did last year, the Parent E-Newsletter will take a break for the month of December but will return early January with parking tips and a look ahead at the Spring semester.
To view archived copies of this newsletter visit www.uta.edu/studentsuccess-home and click on the Parent E-Newsletter link at the bottom of the page.
by Karen Kraus, Director, Office of Financial Aid
Financial Aid – Satisfactory Academic Progress
Each student wishing to receive financial aid must meet the financial aid Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements to retain eligibility. The academic requirements must be maintained even for semesters that students do not receive financial assistance. The Satisfactory Academic Progress policy is located at www.uta.edu/fao, click Financial Aid Programs in the left column, and then click Satisfactory Academic Progress.
It is the student’s responsibility to read and understand the policy. All federal and state financial aid programs are subject to this policy.
There are some financial aid programs that have renewal requirements that are in addition to the normal Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements. Many of the academic scholarships require a much higher standard than what is outlined in this policy. Students who receive such awards will also receive additional information concerning the additional requirements.
A list of programs with additional requirements includes (but is not limited to): academic scholarships, TEXAS Grants, Academic Competitiveness Grants (ACG), SMART Grants, and the Texas B-On-Time Loans.
The staff of the Office of Financial Aid is available to answer any questions or clarify information. We may be contacted at fao@uta.edu or at (817) 272-3561.
Finances Top Survey List of Current College Parent Concerns
College students’ finances are of “extreme” or “great concern” to nearly half of the 1,727 respondents to the Second Annual National Survey on the Current College Parent Experience, which was conducted online from February 23 through March 5, 2007.
Approximately one-half of the respondents were made up of those of who receive a weekly e-mail from College Parents of America and reside in the College Parents of America database. The other half of respondents came from parents who are part of the Student Advantage, LLC database, a College Parents of America partner since 2005.
In responses that were parallel across both databases, parents of current college students showed that they are in frequent contact with their child at college, with nearly 70 percent of the respondents communicating with their son or daughter at least two to three times per week.
Consistent with the results from the first annual such survey in March 2006, cell phones are by far the preferred method of communication, with more than 80 percent of parent respondents saying that a “cell phone conversation” is “very frequently” or “frequently” the method they employ to stay in touch with their child. Only 3 percent of the respondents said that they “rarely” or “never” spoke via cell phone.
What are all those cell phone conversations about?
As noted above, student finances are of paramount concern to those respondents among you who are current college parents, with that and health and safety issues topping a list of choices that also included academics, campus or community involvement opportunities, career planning and personal relationships.
Those parental money concerns seem to be in sync with students, as respondents to the survey report that finances also tops the list of topics on which their college student has “most requested advice or assistance” in the past year, followed by academics, and a near dead-heat between health/safety and career planning, with advice requested on personal relationships at the bottom of the heap.
In another finding that echoes last year’s debut survey, more than 80 percent of parents surveyed report that their level of involvement with their student is “much more” or “more” than their own parents had with them while they were in college.
Several questions in the survey formed a section that was intended to get at the awareness and satisfaction of current college parents when it comes to relationships with the colleges and universities that are educating their sons and daughters. In recent years, many schools have created parent communication tools or opened parent relations offices in order to better serve this current group of more involved parents.
The survey results demonstrate that parents are noticing these increased efforts on the part of institutions of higher education. For instance, more than half of the survey respondents report that their student’s school offers a parent-oriented web site and more than two-thirds say that the school hosts an orientation specifically for the benefit of parents.
To view complete results of the survey, please click here.
Article courtesy of College Parents of America www.collegeparents.org
Copyright © 2007
by Lynne Von Roeder, M.Ed., Academic Advisor, University of Texas at Arlington
It’s Time to Choose a Major
UT Arlington wants to help students discover a major career in their freshman or sophomore year. Therefore, the university initiated a 75-Hour Rule in the fall of 2006. This rule was also in direct response to state legislation to help improve graduation rates.
Essentially, the rule states that students admitted to UT Arlington in fall 2006 or later, must be in a major by the time they have accumulated 75 credit hours: they must be either fully declared or be in an “intended major”. Any student not fitting into either of these two categories will have registration holds and be required to see an advisor (myself or Gerrye Frantz), in the University Advising office.
Many times students have the academic requirements to become declared in a major but need to visit with their departmental advisor to find out the “how”. If students are undecided or cannot meet the academic requirements of a department (GPA), they will come and visit with us to explore options.
Option One – The student does not have the GPA required to declare their chosen major. The student is put under a 75 hour contract with appropriate classes and a target GPA in order to progress towards declaration. If after two semesters, they are not
making academic progress towards their goal, continued enrollment would be tied to choosing another major. Typically, we can work with the student by using counseling and/or career assessment tests.
Option Two – The student is truly undeclared. I teach classes on major exploration each semester that combine assessment instruments to look at skills, personality type, values and strengths. In addition, I invite speakers from different colleges and departments on campus with whom students have expressed interest. We look at information on careers, salary, educational requirements and job growth forecasts. While the student may not know exactly what to major in, they leave with the tools to fine tune their class choices in order to do further exploration.
Students do not have to wait until they have reached the 75 hour threshold to take this class; it is open to anyone. Two sections of the class will be offered this spring. Students who are interested may contact me at lvonroeder@uta.edu or call 817-272-3140.
by Liz Hannabas, Coordinator of Advisor Outreach, University of Texas at Arlington
Dr. Laurin Porter
Our Maverick this month has a giving spirit to the Arlington community as well as to this university. She also provides excellent learning opportunities for students who enroll in English classes.
Her description of a “Maverick”, may be self-identifying -”Mavericks are intellectually curious; willing to study widely and deeply to come to a better understanding of the world, both locally and globally; and committed to using their gifts to make the world a better place.”
Dr. Laurin Porter, is beginning her 22nd year at UT Arlington. She is a full Professor in UT Arlington’s English Department, and is co-chair of the OneBook and UT Arlington Conversations Programs. She is also the faculty liason for the Freshman Interest Group and Residential Learning Community Committee.
The OneBook program has clearly become a program that Dr. Porter is particularly proud of. “It has been exciting and gratifying to watch these programs take hold throughout the university. The OneBook program, in which all freshmen read, study, and write about the same book, has worked well to teach critical thinking skills, introduce these first year students to the level of academic discourse that is expected of them in college, and give them a sense of belonging to the university community. The Conversations program, which selects a key theme from the shared freshman book as a source of lectures, film series, and other events throughout the year, has given the entire university—students, faculty, and staff—an intellectual focus and enriching “conversations” of many kinds.”
Some of the awards Dr. Porter has received include University Outstanding Research Award in 2006, Provost’s Professional Development Award 2005, ‘06 and ‘07 and the Fulbright Award, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic in 2003.
A strong commitment to make UT Arlington and this community a better place makes it only fitting that we acknowledge Dr. Laurin Porter as November’s Maverick of the Month – Congratulations!
We invite parents and family to visit the Parent & Family Center website at www.uta.edu/parents for pictures from Parents Weekend last month (October 26-28).
Planning has begun for next year’s program and we look forward to seeing you on campus. If for some reason you did not get an invitation to parent’s weekend please send us your email so we might inform you of any upcoming events for families. Send email to parents@uta.edu.
Bacterial Meningitis
Recent publicity has raised concern about bacterial meningitis on college campuses. As a parent, you should know about this potentially life-threatening disease. Although there have been no cases of this illness on our campus in recent years, Health Services is taking a proactive step toward protecting our students by conducting a one-day walk-in vaccination program.
Meningitis is a serious disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. Because bacterial meningitis is a grave illness and can rapidly progress to death, it requires early diagnosis and treatment. This is often difficult because the symptoms closely resemble those of the flu and the highest incidence of meningitis occurs during late winter and early spring (flu season). When not fatal, bacterial meningitis can lead to permanent disabilities such as hearing loss, brain damage or loss of limbs.
Studies of college outbreaks suggest that freshmen living in residence halls have a slightly higher risk of contracting this disease because they live and work in close proximity to each other. Lifestyle appears to be a risk factor as well: exposure to active and passive smoking, alcohol consumption and bar patronage increases the risk of contracting meningitis.
The meningitis vaccination program will be held on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm at the Health Center (605 S. West Street, Arlington, TX 76010). The cost of the Menactra vaccine is $104; the Health Center accepts major credit cards, cash, personal checks, and student account payments. This vaccine may also be covered by your insurance; please check your plan and save your receipt.
Read more about Meningitis and a campus health bulletin on Staphylococcus aureus (Staph and MRSA) by visiting our website at www.uta.edu/health_services. You may also contact us at 817-272-2771 or healthservices@uta.edu.
Career Service Events
The Fall Semester is in full swing and Career Services has many events planned to assist students in all phases of their college experience.
On September 19, Career Services held its annual fall job fair. It was the largest ever such fair with over 160 employers attending offering hundreds of part-time, full-time and internship opportunities for current students and alums. Over 2,000 students attended and we received rave reviews from employers and the participants.
Sophomores and Juniors -
If your student is interested in pursuing an internship in their major field, have them come to any of the three Career Services offices and register to post a resume on our database to have access to a wide variety of employer sponsored internship opportunities in anything from Engineering to Finance!
If your student needs a part-time job to earn cash for those “extras”, they can visit our Career Services office; Student Employment Services is located in the University Center, Room 140. Students can register and browse our database of part-time and full-time non-degree required jobs located off-campus.
If your student wants to create a “winning” resume, encourage them to come to one of our walk-up resume critique events held every Tuesday in the Main Library, 2nd Floor from noon to 1:00pm, or Wednesdays from noon to 1:00pm in the Engineering and Science Library located in the Basement of Nedderman Hall.
If your student is considering a Business Major and wants to explore what kinds of jobs are available for each major, they can attend one of the Business Career Seminar Series on Wednesdays from noon to 1:00pm in the Business Building, Room 608. Contact Cliff Garinn at cliffg@uta.edu for more information.
Your student can also sign up for our Virtual Interview system “Interview Stream” by going to careers.uta.edu and clicking on the interview stream icon; then, come to Davis Hall 216 at the assigned time and conduct a virtual interview in front of a computer equipped with a video cam that records a student’s response to questions provided by an on-screen person.
Seniors and Graduating Graduate Students –
As mentioned above, walk-up resume critique events and “Interview Stream” are available to seniors and graduate students as well.
These students may also be interested in attending our workshop designed especially for those students about to transition from academics to the world of work entitled “From Flip Flops to Business Suits” on November 2 to learn how to make this change successfully.
For more information on all our services, visit careers.uta.edu.
McNair Scholars Program Application Deadline
November 5 is the final date for undergraduates to apply to the McNair Scholars Program (for entry spring 2008). For more information, contact the SOAR office.
Upcoming Sports Events
Has your student caught a basketball game? Let them know about upcoming games: UT Arlington women host Oklahoma on the 4th; the men play UC Riverside on 12th and UNT on the 21st. Also, the men’s and women’s cross country teams are competing in Terre Haute, Indiana at the NCAA Championships this month – Go Mavericks!
Study Abroad
Is your student interested in studying abroad? There’s a study abroad information session on November 28th at noon in the Blanco Room, located in the University Center. Free to all students.
Want to find it all in one spot? Click on the full calendar link and you’ll find both the academic and featured events combined.