New Graduate Student Orientation

New Graduate Student Orientation Options

The Graduate School aims to offer a variety of onboarding activities and events to help new graduate students acclimate to ECU, Greenville, and their graduate education.  Please feel free to participate in as many options as you would like!Your program may have a required orientation session but all of the Graduate School orientations are optional.

Virtual Pre-Registration Orientation (Optional)

  • Monday, 17 March, 6:00-6:45 pm – This session focuses on the beginning of registration for summer and fall (Friday, 28 March) and discusses setting up accounts, advising, registration, billing, payment plans, financial aid, and keeping track of academic progress through Degree Works. Session is a live video conference presented through Teams.
    Join the 17 March meeting now

Orientation Course in Canvas (Optional)

All newly admitted graduate students are enrolled in an online orientation course within the classroom management system, Canvas.  The course will appear in a student’s course listing (or you will get an invitation to join the course) after you enroll in classes for your first semester.  Therefore, it is really important that you enroll in courses as quickly as possible once registration is open.  Registration opens in late October/early November for Spring terms and it opens in March for Summer and Fall terms.  You can consult the Office of the Registrar’s website to learn the dates registration will open for your first term of graduate school. If you are a current ECU undergraduate student or if you are already enrolled in your first semester’s courses and you do not see the New Graduate Student Orientation course in Canvas, please send an email to gradorientation@ecu.edu using your ECU email and notify us.  Please provide your Banner ID and we will be able to get you in the course quickly.

  • This Graduate School sponsored Canvas course is not required by the Graduate School. It may be required by your program, so please check with your graduate program director if you have questions.
  • The College of Business has a separate Canvas orientation for its students and it is required. Please contact gradbus@ecu.edu you have questions.
  • The College of Nursing has a separate Canvas orientation course for its students and it is required.

Live Virtual Orientation Options (via Teams)

Join our online sessions to learn information about getting acquainted with Graduate School at ECU. There is no need to pre-register for these sessions – simply join the meetings online.

All events will be through Microsoft Teams which you can access using your Pirate ID and passphrase.

Early Orientation Sessions

  • Late May – Day/Time TBD – Early orientation session highlights enrollment, billing deadlines, financial aid-CPOS, keeping track of academic progress – Degree Works.
  • Mid-June – Day/Time TBD Tuesday, 18 June, 6:00-7:15 – Early orientation session highlights enrollment, financial aid-CPOS, billing deadlines, keeping track of academic progress – Degree Works.

Orientation Sessions with Student Panels

  • Late July – Day/Time TBD – Standard orientation for all students; will feature a panel of current graduate students, discuss campus resources, differences between undergraduate and graduate programs, etc.
  • Early August – Day/Time TBD – Online Student Orientation will feature a panel of current online graduate students; focus on resources available to online students and discussion of work-life balance.
  • Mid-August – Day/Time TBD – Orientation with Panel and Resource Presenters. Features a panel of current graduate students and “live” presenters from various campus resource centers, focus on assistantship responsibilities and life in Greenville.

Last Chance Q&A Session

  • Mid-August – Day/Time TBD – Final Chance Question and Answer Session. Have questions after having initial program meetings? Bring the questions to this session.