New Student Orientation - click on the plus signs to expand the description of each item

The first items you need as a new student are your acceptance letter and your PIN letter. These should come to you by US mail after you have submitted an application. The acceptance letter will include your student ID number, which will become your User ID for our student registration system (MyCC). The PIN letter contains your personal identification number (PIN), which is your password to enter the registration system.

Please check that all items required in the application booklet for your specific program have been submitted. You may have been admitted with certain forms outstanding (such as the health insurance waiver or immunization form), but you may not be able to register for classes without a complete file. If you are unsure of what items may be missing from your file, please contact your admission counselor. All forms may be downloaded from the Admissions website.

 

All new students must pay a $100 deposit to hold their spot in the program. The amount is applied toward the tuition bill.  You may pay your bill with a credit card over the phone by calling the Bursar/Student Accounts office at 617-868-100 x1326.  Or you can send a check or money order to: Cambridge College, ATTN: Bursar, 1000 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA 02138. Be sure to write "tuition deposit" in the memo line. EdD students should submit their tuition deposits with the INTENT TO MATRICULATE form (included in their admission packets) to the Department of Educational Leadership.

 

To be considered for any financial aid offered at Cambridge College, it is required of all students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Cambridge College Financial Aid Application.  Other documentation may be requested; however, we will contact you if this is necessary. An outline of the financial aid process can be found on the Cambridge College website, by going to www.cambridgecollege.edu/financialaid. Simply follow the instructions to complete all the required steps.  Each step brings you to the appropriate website to complete that process.  Any financial aid documents that the College requires can be found on the website under Financial Aid Forms.

 

If you are completing a NITE program or are entering the doctoral summer residency, please go to http://www.cambridgecollege.edu/residence to submit the electronic residency form, which allows you to make your housing request and choose transportation and payment options.  Your password to enter the site is your student ID number. Students who live within driving distance are not required to live on campus.

 

If you are taking courses in Augusta, Georgia, and are not local to that area, click here for more details about hotel reservations.

MyCC is an online learning management system which allows students to register for courses and participate in online course assignments or discussions. It also allows students to access their course history, transcripts, student accounts, online library, online course evaluation system, and much more. To log in, go to https://mycc.cambridgecollege.edu/. At the top of the web page, you will see a user ID and password login. Your user ID is your student ID number. Your password is the PIN number you received in your PIN letter upon admission. The PIN number is a combination of numbers, letters and characters, and is case-sensitive. Once you have logged in, you will be able to change your password to something you can more easily remember. For detailed instructions about MyCC, download the MyCC Portal Guide for navigation of the entire system or the MyCC Learning Management Guide for using MyCC within your courses. Learning to use the MyCC system ahead of time will help you to focus more on your studies during the program.

 

For quick steps on how to register for classes, click here.

 

Make sure to review your program of study before registering for classes. You may find more information about your program of study by clicking here.

 

When you register for your first course a Cambridge College email account will be created for you. All important announcements and correspondence from College departments and faculty to students comes through the Cambridge College email system. It is imperative that students learn to use the system and check their email daily. Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) is the collaborative tool that the Cambridge College community uses as its email application. The tool also provides a calendar, task and contact management, note taking, a journal and web browsing. Students, faculty, and staff can send and receive e-mails, transfer text and graphics files. All students of Cambridge College are eligible to receive the Outlook email service. For detailed instructions on using OWA, click here. If you have any questions, you may contact the Helpdesk.

 

Your e-mail address will be: firstname.lastname@cambridgecollege.edu

 

To use your account follow these steps:

a) From any computer that has Internet access, open a web browser and type in the following address: https://owa.cambridgecollege.edu/

b) Type your user domain/user name in the appropriate box, which is firstname.lastname

Example, my first name is John and my last name is Doe; therefore, I will enter john.doe for the username.

c) Type your password in the second box, which is your student ID number, which is located on your letter of admission.

d) If you are on your private computer, choose "private computer" under the Security section. This will keep you from being automatically timed out of your email account during use. If you are on a public or shared computer, keep the security setting on "public."

e) Click "Log on." This will bring you into your email account.

 

 

Go to MyCC and check your course offerings. Professors will have their required and recommended text(s) listed as part of their syllabi. You may use any online book company to order your books. Here are some suggested online retailers:

 

• Amazon • BarnesandNoble • CheapBooks • CollegeBooksDirect • eFollett • Half.com • Textbooks.com •

 

If you are living on the NITE campus in the summer, consider shipping your books directly to Cambridge College before your summer session begins. To ensure timely delivery, they must be shipped to the following address no later than June 20:

 

Emmanuel College

400 The Fenway

Boston, MA 02115

Attn: (Your Name) Cambridge College NITE 2009

 

If you are experiencing difficulty locating a course’s syllabus in MyCC, please email your course instructor at firstname.lastname@cambridgecollege.edu.

 

Doctoral students: most apply for transfer credits during the admission process and are then contacted by the Department with specific approval in the weeks following admission to the program. If you did not submit your transfer credit request during the application process, please email the Department with your specific request. You will then be required to obtain course descriptions for your requested transfer credits. To view our transfer credit policy, please go to the Educational Leadership Handbook. 

 

CAGS and MEd students: To process your transfer credits, we will need to receive official transcripts from the regionally accredited institutions of higher education where you earned these credits.  If you are entering a degree program that prepares you for licensure/certification, such as (but not limited to) School Administration, please send a detailed course description directly to the Transfer Credit Office for each class you wish to have assessed for possible transfer of credit.  For further information, please contact the Transfer Credit Office at (800) 877-4723, ext. 1181.  For a printout of the form used to request official transcripts, please go to the student forms section of the Registrar's website.

 

One of the best ways to become oriented and feel comfortable as you move through your program, is to familiarize yourself with Cambridge College, with the Department of Educational Leadership, and with the specific program you have chosen. One great way to do this is to browse this website to learn about our history, mission, faculty, and current students. Page through the handbooks and make sure you understand our policies. Many of the questions you may have can be answered with the click of a mouse. Please take advantage of this resource.

 

Our doctoral program is uniquely and comprehensively designed to support your doctoral studies and help you complete your dissertation in a timely manner. You will take numerous courses and have intensive, ongoing support that will focus and guide your research and writing. As you prepare for the start of this program, you may gain from reading some of the following websites and articles. There are literally hundreds and thousands of books, websites, articles, and other resources that attempt to help doctoral students succeed. The following links are simply a sample of excellent resources that we have found that may help you develop your thinking, research, and writing for this process. We encourage you to read them prior to the start of your first doctoral dissertation course.

 

-- Handout on the Dissertation Process. A document prepared by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which provides a wealth of insights about the dissertation process.

--"The Peculiar Problems of Preparing Educational Researchers", David Labaree, Educational Researcher, 32:4, pp. 13-22, May 2003. This is an excellent article that examines the transition that educational practitioners must make as they move into the realm of "academics" and scholarly research.

--"The Art of Writing Proposals: Some Candid Suggestions for Applicants to Social Science Research Council Competitions", by Adam Przeworski and Frank Salomon for the Social Science Research Council. A dissertation is in many an attempt to "sell" an idea, much like a grant proposal. This article is an excellent synopsis of strategies for grant proposals, and, by extension, a dissertation.

--"How Does One Choose a Dissertation Topic?" This provides a good walk-through of the basics of thinking about one's dissertation topic.

--"Structure of a Dissertation Proposal"  This is a good overview of the basic structure of many dissertation proposals.

--"APA Exposed" This is an excellent online tutorial designed for doctor of education students to help them avoid common formatting and citation mistakes.

 

Another powerful resource now available to you is the Cambridge College Online Library (CCOL). You will become familiar with CCOL through your coursework and advising during the program, but you may wish to begin using it now. You can log in through MyCC (no separate ID is necessary). There are a couple of electronic books, in particular, that may be of interest to you as you begin to think about a doctoral dissertation. Once logged into CCOL, click into Electronic Books to view the following: Writing Your Doctoral Dissertation by Rita S. Brause and Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors by Beth Luey.