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Welcome to the University of Pittsburgh

The Grad Guide is a publication designed to help you negotiate the University and the Pittsburgh community. You will be inundated with formal rules and guidelines from the Arts and Sciences Graduate School and from your department. Grad Guide is meant to serve another purpose. It attempts to address "frequently asked questions" that new graduate students are likely to have about the University and the city. Besides purely informational material, it includes first-person accounts by graduate students (who have already gone through the experience you are now undertaking), staff members, and faculty offering their individual perspectives on varied topics. The first-person accounts are italicized to help you distinguish them from more general tips and information. Advice written especially for international students are designated with a globe graphic throughout the text, and are also indexed here.

This Grad Guide is the product of many people's efforts. It represents a collaboration between the Office of the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences (Arts and Sciences) and the Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Organization (A&S GSO). The principal editors of the 2007-2009 edition were Stephen L. Carr, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies in Arts and Sciences and the following A&S GSO representatives: Robert Crane (Theater), Kristen Harkness (History of Art and Architecture), Julie Hoggarth (Anthropology) and Natalie McCarthy (Linguistics). Special thanks go to Carol Mullen, Arts and Sciences Director of Communications, and April Rizzo, Arts and Sciences Manager of Electronic Communications, for their technical assistance.

Best wishes in your graduate studies program. Enjoy your time at the university and in the city.

Sincerely,

Stephen L. Carr
Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies
School of Arts and Sciences

Grad Guide is published by the Office of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Student Organization in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. All rights reserved. Fully revised in June 2007. For more information about this publication or other A&S Graduate Studies materials, please write to Arts and Sciences Graduate Studies; 5141 Sennott Square, University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh, PA 15260. We can also be reached via e-mail at graduate@as.pitt.edu.