Online Graduate Certificate in Data Science for the Chemical Industry - Student Resources

BuzzPort is Georgia Tech’s primary student portal designed to help you interact with Georgia Tech services and campus colleagues. You can use this portal to track your financial aid application, transfer credit evaluations, and to stay in touch with offices on campus.  

DegreeWorks provides a comprehensive set of web-based academic advising, degree audit, and transfer articulation tools to help you and advisors negotiate curriculum requirements. 

Students use the OSCAR portal to access their schedule of classes and other content in the Student Information System (SIS). 

All online master’s students are given access to a Georgia Tech email address. Visit Passport to set up or change your Georgia Tech email address. Once your email is activated, you can access your email online at mail.gatech.edu and will use the same username and password for all Georgia Tech accounts. 

Each May and December, Georgia Tech holds commencement ceremonies for graduate students. Graduation takes place the semester after you take your last class, due to delay for homework assignments and exams. You must complete an Online Application for Graduation prior to commencement. All online master’s students are invited to participate, but it is not a requirement.  

Visit Georgia Tech’s commencement website for all the details you need to prepare for your ceremony including graduation requirements, deadlines, day of logistics, and information regarding academic regalia.  

How to Apply  
In order to graduate from Georgia Tech, a student must first submit an application for graduation. This walkthrough guide shows how to use the OAG, and ensure your application is successfully submitted. 

After Applying 
After your application is submitted, Degree Certificate will conduct two audits on your application, while working and communicating with your advisor. A breakdown of the timing of the two audits can be found on the Registrar’s website. 

To view your degree status, login to Degree Works. Near the top of your audit, under a section titled “Student View,” you will see a field “Graduation Status.” The text that appears in that field is your current degree status. 

In order to graduate from Georgia Tech, students must first submit an Online Application for Graduation (OAG).  

It is the student’s responsibility to apply for graduation and to ensure that the correct name and address is on file with the Office of the Registrar. Diplomas are typically mailed within eight weeks after the graduation date. Students will receive email confirmation with tracking when the diploma is mailed. Additional information about diplomas can be found on the Registrar’s website. 

Students who have petitioned for a degree for the term may request a Letter of Completion from the Registrar’s office stating they have a pending degree, and the degree will be awarded when all requirements for degree are completed. This is not for students who have already been awarded a degree. The Letter of Completion form and instructions can be found on the Georgia Tech Registrar’s website. 

All students are required to sign the Academic Honor Code and are strongly encouraged to seek a full understanding of their instructors’ expectations regarding academic honor. 

Anyone who is qualified is welcome to seek admission to Georgia Tech, and anyone who applies for and accepts admission can be confident that the policy and regular practice of the Institute will not discriminate against him or her on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin. The criteria used in determining each applicant’s eligibility for consideration can be found in the admission requirements. 

A student may not apply for transfer credit until after matriculation at Georgia Tech. The courses to be transferred would typically be those appearing on the approved program of study form for the master’s degree. A doctoral student normally does not request transfer credit. The rules relative to and the process for obtaining transfer of credit for graduate-level courses can be found on the Registrar’s website. 

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student education records. All rights can be found on the Registrar’s website. 

Georgia Tech desires to resolve student grievances, complaints, and concerns in an expeditious, fair, and amicable manner. Students attending Georgia Tech through online classes who wish to resolve a grievance should follow the steps below. 

Step 1  
Complaints should first be filed internally with the appropriate Georgia Tech authority and then, if necessary, to external authorities. 

• Informal Process: Most complaints can be resolved within the University itself. This can be done initially by engaging in open communication with the individual directly involved. If the issue is not satisfactorily resolved, the next phase will be to contact the supervisor, department chair, or associate dean to investigate the issue. Our Student Services team can serve as a resource to help you through this process. 
• Formal Process: If the informal process is unsuccessful in reaching a satisfactory resolution, the student is encouraged to complete the Institutional Grievance form to expedite a formal complaint with the University. Once the form is completed, it will be submitted to the Office of the Provost. 

Step 2 
If a student feels that the issue was not resolved at the institutional level (Step 1), then they may file a complaint with the appropriate state agency. 

Georgia: Students living in Georgia may file a complaint with the University System of Georgia as part of the 6.26 Application for Discretionary Review.

Outside Georgia: Students living outside of Georgia may file a complaint their home state regulatory agency. 

Additional Resources for Student Complaints 
If the student is not satisfied with the solution provided by the University and the state, they may file a complaint with the University accreditation agency. Accrediting agencies will only review issues addressing significant non-compliance with agency standards, policies, or procedures. This is to be considered a last resort effort. 

• Department of Defense Post-Secondary Education complaint procedure
• NC-SARA complaint procedure
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) complaint procedure 
• U.S. Department of Education complaint procedure

Students are assigned a specific time slot during which they may register. This time slot is referred to as a “time ticket.” Students may view their assigned time ticket on the Web Student Access System. Students may access the “Add/Drop Classes” option only during their time ticket. For procedures regarding registration, please review the Registration Information on registrar’s website. 

Any student who wishes to drop a course must do so using by follow the instructions on the registrar’s website. The course will remain on the student’s schedule with a status of “courses dropped by student.” A grade of “W” will be assigned for the dropped course(s) at the end of the term. 

Any student, with the exception of active duty U.S. military personnel, who wishes to withdraw from the Institute must do so by following the instructions on the registrar’s website. All courses will remain on the student’s schedule with a status of “courses dropped by student.” A grade of “W” will be assigned for the dropped course(s) at the end of the term. 

Deadlines for individual course drops and for complete withdrawals from the Institute are posted on the Academic Calendar by term. 

Students who are enrolled at Georgia Tech may not receive credit for courses completed at another institution during the same academic term, unless prior permission has been obtained for cross-registration or concurrent registration. Additional explanation on cross-registration can be found on the Registrar’s website. 

All payments of tuition and fees are handled by the Bursar’s office. For instructions on how to pay, please visit the student payment portal.   

The Georgia Tech Bursar’s Office processes refunds via EFT, also known as Direct Deposit, Monday through Friday. Refunds and overpayments are electronically disbursed to the student’s checking or savings account and should be in the students account on the following day or sooner. You are not always eligible for a refund when dropping a course, so please read over the refund policy. 

All students should own a computer with these minimum requirements: 

Form Factor:  Notebook or desktop computer (a netbook or tablet should not be used as the primary computing device*.) A minimum of 6 hours of battery life is recommended. 

Processor:  64-bit multi-core (quad-core or higher) Intel or AMD processor or better. 

Memory:  16 GB or more.  For best performance, install as much memory as affordable at the time of purchase. 

Operating System:  The newest version of Windows (10 or better) or MacOS (10.15 or better). As you progress through the degree program, continue updating to the newest version for better protection against cyber security risks; turning on automatic update can help with this. Before applying software and hardware updates, back up your computer (see below) and ensure the updates will work with your existing applications. 

Browser:  The newest version of Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome. 

Primary Hard Drive:  256 GB minimum. You may work with large datasets, so the larger, the better. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are ideal because they’re much faster than hard-disk drives (HDDs). 

Backup Device or Service:  Having a quality backup of your important files is vital to your success as a student. Windows and MacOS have an optional built-in backup support (e.g., via Time Machine on MacOS). For students who would like to take advantage of it, we’ve negotiated a student discount for Crashplan (details at crashplan.com/gtstudent). OneDrive, provided by GT at no charge, is a great solution as well.   

Free GitHub Repositories: Git is an industry-standard way for collaborative coding and version control; many companies now expect git familiarity from employees.  As a Georgia Tech student, you can create unlimited repositories, which are great for group projects. Always set up repositories to be private (instead of public), and never put any sensitive information (e.g., passwords, AWS keys) in them. Criminals scan public repositories for such information and when they find it, it can lead to huge financial loss for victims. Therefore, use your credentials to run AWS jobs. 

Networking:  Wired connection via Ethernet NIC (1Gbe RJ45/Cat5e or better) or a Dual-Band (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) Wireless 802.11 ac-enabled computer and a reliable, fast network connection (recommended minimum 10Mbps down/4Mbps up).  

Accessories:  A laptop or desktop with a webcam and microphone (built-in or external). Also, although you aren’t required to use a headset with a microphone, they often help students communicate more clearly during video-conference sessions. 

*Most netbooks and tablets (e.g., Apple iPad, Galaxy Tab, and others that run on an operating system designed specifically for the device) do NOT meet the minimum hardware requirements above. They tend to provide sufficient performance for basic tasks, such as web browsing or simple word processing; however, using courses’ technical software may not be possible. 

Office of Information Technology (UOIT) strives to offer the necessary tools for students to accomplish collaboration, research, scholarship, and innovation.  

IT Resources for online master’s students 

For generation information visits oit.gatech.edu or contact them at: 

Office of Information Technology 
Phone: 404-894-7173 
Email: support@oit.gatech.edu