At the School of City and Regional Planning, graduate students have a faculty advisor and an academic advisor.  Both the faculty and the academic advisor are here to help students succeed within and beyond academia.  They provide assistance and guidance in navigating academic choices, policies, requirements and resources. 

Here are some of the things your faculty advisor can do for you: 

• Provide information and advice about student’s academic interests, career choices, and course selection and scheduling. 

• Assure student’s plan of study meets student’s objectives and satisfies matriculation and graduation requirements. 

Here are some of the things your academic advisor can do for you: 

• Provide academic counseling 

• Refer you to helpful resources to address factors that prohibit your academic success 

• Help you stay on track for graduation 

• Clarify Georgia Tech’s and SCaRP’s policies 

• Read the student manual for your program. Seriously, read it! Between the Georgia Tech graduate catalog https://catalog.gatech.edu/ and the student manual per program listed below will contain most information that you need:. 
  • MCRP
  • MS-GIST 
  • PhD
  • MSUA program manual will be uploaded soon, please check accordingly.
• Treat your student email like a work email – i.e. check it daily to be on top of things.  
• Make an appointment with your faculty advisor within your first semester to discuss your interests, academic plans, choice of elective classes, and any other academic questions.
• Read the SCaRPian newsletter as it comes to your email inbox weekly – it is a bundle of useful and important information, including advisement announcements. GRA, internship, fellowship and other relevant opportunities are posted there.
• Familiarize yourself with the academic calendar https://registrar.gatech.edu/calendar and important dates, such as registration, withdrawal, etc. 
• Look over the course forecast here: https://planning.gatech.edu/course-forecast
• Reach out to your academic advisor ASAP to discuss any unsatisfactory academic performance or non-academic issues that could have adverse impact on academic success and degree progress. 
• Get familiar with DegreeWorks - https://degreeaudit.gatech.edu/ - this tool provides a set of web-based academic advising, degree audit and transfer articulation tools. 
• If you have taken elsewhere coursework that you believe covers the same material as one of the courses in your SCaRP program of study, it may be possible to get transfer credit or course waiver. If this is the case, reach out to your faculty or academic advisor and be ready to submit a syllabus for faculty review.  This is better done sooner rather than later. 
• Get involved with the Student Planning Association https://www.georgiatechspa.com/ and other organizations and campus initiatives https://www.gatech.edu/life/student-activities  – college is more than just the classes. Also, stay on top of all the exciting events at the Institute; they are posted at https://calendar.gatech.edu/. 
• Move, eat and sleep well! Sleep, nutrition and physical activity exert a profound effect on your brain and capacity to understand, analyze, remember and learn. You can study less and learn more if you prioritize your overall well-being. The Institute’s Wellness Empowerment Center https://wellnesscenter.gatech.edu/ and recreation center https://www.crc.gatech.edu  are great resources to support you to nurture a healthy mind in a healthy body. Please explore their webpages in detail to understand the programs and resources available to support your academic and personal success.
• Once you have finalized your applied research paper (a.k.a. option paper) or capstone project paper, please upload it to the SMARTech digital archive. Please follow the upload guidelines posted here. Don't forget to email scarp@design.gatech.edu with your upload link when the library staff confirms your upload. If you have completed a thesis, follow the guidelines at https://grad.gatech.edu/theses-dissertations 
• Applications to graduate need to be submitted via OSCAR the semester before you wish to graduate. You can find the instructions on how to do that at https://registrar.gatech.edu/info/online-application-graduation-oag-graduate-students.