Successful Transitions to Graduate School: Using Orientations to Improve Student Experiences in Criminology and Criminal Justice Programs

Abstract

The initial transition to graduate school provides a critical opportunity for promoting a positive educational experience among incoming students. This study discusses the importance of this transition and then describes a novel student-led orientation approach to facilitating successful entry of new students into criminology and criminal justice graduate degree programs. Results from an evaluation of this approach are presented. Analyses of focus group and student survey data indicate that graduate students matriculating into a criminology and criminal justice program in a southern state felt welcomed and found the information, guidance, and social networks that they developed to be helpful. At the same time, students identified ways the orientation could be improved for future cohorts. A student-led orientation, along with evaluation of it, provides a promising strategy for criminology and criminal justice graduate programs to create positive educational and professionalization experiences for their students.

Acknowledgments

We thank Tom Blomberg, Margarita Frankeberger, Carter Hay, and the fall 2013 graduate student cohort for helpful recommendations. We also thank the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Sociology. Some of the contours of the graduate student orientation approach described here were developed by the Department and revised during the lead author’s experiences while at the University of Texas-Austin and during his time directing the graduate student orientation at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. We thank, too, the anonymous reviewers for constructive suggestions for improving the paper.