OVC staff who are fairly new to the Institute may recall how easy it was as a new employee to complete all of their institutional requirements before they even set foot on campus—from submitting forms and completing online training to getting more info about MIT.

Thanks to a pilot this spring, incoming graduate students can now use Atlas for their own onboarding and orientation. Atlas for Grads was developed as part of a collaboration between the Office of Graduate Education, IS&T, the Atlas Center, and the Department of Chemistry. Incoming chemistry graduate students completed many institutional requirements before coming to campus, including applying for their MIT ID cards, completing the IPIA form, signing up for MIT Alerts, and completing their medical forms and the Sexual Misconduct Prevention & Awareness training. The effort was so successful that Atlas for Grads was expanded and rolled out to all graduate departments in June.

An important part of the Graduate Student Roadmap, onboarding and orientation for graduate students has been enhanced by Atlas for Grads.

—Lauren Pouchak, OVC HQ