ICYMI: 2025 Orientation Week Recap

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The Graduate School's 2025 Orientation Week welcomed the 1,041 new graduate students to Duke through a series of events that helped them get acquainted with the university, hear advice from current faculty and students on how to transition to life in graduate school, connect with resources and organizations across the institution, and meet their fellow students, deans, and administrative staff in TGS. 

Virtual Orientation for New Graduate Students  

Orientation week kicked off with a virtual session on Tuesday, August 19 for all new graduate students. Suzanne Barbour, Dean of The Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education, welcomed new students and shared some interesting facts about the incoming class: 

• During the 2023–2024 application season, The Graduate School received 16,839 applications and sent 3,271 offers
• TGS welcomes 1,041 new students this year, 6.18% of its total applicants
• International students from 58 countries make up 58% of the incoming student body

Executive Vice Provost Mohamed Noor welcomed graduate students with encouragement to form connections across the Duke and Durham community rather than feel siloed within the culture of one department or graduate program. 

View the full virtual orientation recording below. 

Professional Development Resources 

During virtual orientation, Assistant Dean of Graduate Student Development Melissa Bostrom shared a wealth of professional development resources, including where to find upcoming Professional Development events, how to access the Duke Options tool to map out professional development opportunities, and additional master's and Ph.D. support through the Beyond the Professoriate and Beyond Graduate School platforms.

Dean Bostrom closed by sharing the graduate student perspective of professional development options at Duke, as seen in the video below.  

New Student Resource Fair

This year's new grad student resource fair saw record attendance with over 700 attendees. The event was held in the heart of campus on the Abele Quad, where students made new connections with organizations across Duke.

Transitioning to Grad School: Faculty & Student Panels

Virtual orientation included faculty and student panels on the topic of transitioning to graduate school. Notable quotes on transition and making the most of one's time in graduate school are included below. 

• Marta Mulawa, Associate Professor of Nursing and Global Health: "Don't panic when things are nonlinear. When you feel like you aren't progressing, you likely are."  
   
• Tingjun Chen, Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering: "Try to enjoy every workshop, every symposium, every opportunity here. Try to keep engaged with all the people who talk to you... and eventually, you will find your pathways cross sometime in the future in very coincidental or amazing ways." 
   
• Michael Boyce, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Cell & Molecular Biology: "Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone and try something new... There's a huge array of resources here, and I think this is a great opportunity to explore those things with very little risk." 
   
• Ariana de Souza, Earth & Climate Sciences Ph.D. student: "When you join a department, the administration are the people who see students come and go the most, and they have a lot of institutional knowledge that the fellow grad students may not have. So get to know them, be appreciative of them, and really take the time to meet with them and talk to them about everything that's happening. Talk to your DGS and DGSA; make them allies of yours. Really take the time to invest in your fellow grad students, because they're going to be the ones to give you support and feedback that you can't get elsewhere."
   
• Anvita Kulshrestha, Genetics and Genomics Ph.D. student: "It is completely fine to take your time. Everything seems very overwhelming when you're just starting off, but it's totally fine to take your time."
   
• Ben Ncube, Population Health Sciences M.S. student: "On those days when you just can't get out of bed to go to lecture, on the days when you've got too much on your plate— more times than you might imagine, you might feel like you're failing, but know that it's normal, and it's okay for it to happen, and for you to pick yourself up every single day."

RCR Mentoring Workshop

On Wednesday, August 20, The Graduate School hosted a mentoring workshop for incoming Ph.D. students, providing two RCR credits as well as insight into the importance of mentoring. Following an opening presentation, which included a video featuring several Duke faculty mentors, participants broke out into small groups to discuss practical challenges that might arise and how to navigate these issues. Their insights were then shared with the larger group.

Welcome Reception for New and Returning Students 

Orientation Week 2025 closed with a celebration at The Graduate School building, which included lawn games, Kona Ice, and some very competitive matches of Jenga! Over 250 students and guests were in attendance.