Graduate Student Orientation
Wondering how to start your transition to campus? Check out our After Admission guide and click through each header for detailed checklists.
International Student Orientation
Fall: August 18-19, 2025
Spring: TBD
oiss.rice.edu/orientation
oiss.rice.edu/gio
More information can be found here.
Graduate International Orientation (GIO) is a mandatory orientation program for all new international graduate and graduate exchange students. Students will review immigration regulations, graduate specific policies, and programs geared specifically to support the international graduate population.
Any student unable to attend must notify OISS in advance and schedule a make-up session. Unfortunately, those students who do not attend will have a hold placed on their student record, which blocks them from registration until check-in and orientation requirements are met.
*Please note that MBA has a special session designed for MBA international students that will take place during the international immersion week.
President's Dinner for Incoming Students
Fall: TBD
Location: BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC)
Online General Graduate Student Orientation
August 20, 2025 for Fall admits, TBD Spring 2026 admits
The online portion of Graduate Student Orientation for incoming students will be availabe soon. Online orientation must be completed no later than noon on Wednesday, August 20, 2025 for Fall 2025 incoming graduate students*.
Access General Graduate Student Orientation by loging with netID.
If you have not received your netID or you have questions, please email your graduate administrator. Many graduate departments also hold their own orientations, please check with your graduate administrator for additional information. Orientation modules are listed below and are subject to change.
GSA New Student Picnic
The GSA will welcome new graduate students! The date will be announced soon. Join the GSA at the Graduate Commons (picnic tables outside Valhalla between buildings 8 and 45 on the campus map) for free food, drinks, and t-shirts! Current students are welcome to volunteer!
Training
https://graduate.rice.edu/admissions/after-admission/training
Responsible Conduct of Research Training and Sexual Harassment Prevention Training are all available online. Information on training, including links to access, can be found here. RCR and Sexual Harassment Prevention Trainings are due Oct. 1 (for Fall admits) and Feb 15 (for Spring admits).
Lab safety training is for the safety of the students in the Schools of Engineering and Natural Science and all others who work in labs.
New students in the schools of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the Department of Psychological Sciences admitted in the fall must attend the EHS Safety Training unless other arrangements have been made for your cohort and communicated to you by your graduate administrator. You can view training requirements online here. Non-thesis master's students are NOT exempt from lab safety training. Only students in Computational Applied Mathematics & Operations Research, Engineering Management Leadership, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction and Industrial-Organizational Psychology are exempt from the training.
All students (regardless of their program who conduct experiments in a laboratory where chemicals, biological agents and/or physical hazards are present must take the appropriate training before beginning work in the lab. Students must attend make-up training if they miss the August session.
Failure to complete lab safety training by the deadline may result in your inability to access the lab and stipend checks being held.
Note: Anyone who will be working with human blood or tissue is required to take the Hepatitis B shots if they have not previously had it as part of their regular childhood immunizations.
Contact Environmental Health & Safety for more information.
*New Master of Business Administration, Master of Accounting, Master of Liberal Studies, and online Master of Computer Science students are not required to attend the General Graduate Student Orientation; all thesis and non-thesis master's not listed, and non-MBA professional master's students are required to attend, but please check with your program coordinator for additional information. All Ph.D. and DMA students are required to attend orientation.