Orientation/White Coat Ceremonies
Welcome and What's New
Updated: October 2023
Congratulations on your acceptance to Upstate Medical University and welcome to the New Student Orientation page!
Attendance at your orientation program is mandatory and very important to your success at Upstate. Please make sure that the appropriate dates are placed on your calendar and complete the tasks on the Incoming Student Checklist through MyUpstate. Accepted students will also receive access to orientation modules as a Brightspace course four weeks before their specific orientation. Modules will need to be completed before students arrive at orientation.
Please plan a full day for orientation on both Thursday and Friday. Both days begin around 8:00am and go into mid-late afternoon.
A Facebook group for networking with other accepted students is available. Make sure to join the group and enjoy meeting some of your new colleagues! Please note that you will be required to answer a couple group questions to gain access to the group as many individuals do not use their legal name on Facebook. Please answer the group questions so we can approve you! If you have questions, please let us know. This is just our way to keep the group to just incoming/new Upstate students!
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me and I will be sure to get back to you! I look forward to meeting you!
Ryan Green
Director of Campus Activities
Kristina McLaughlin
Assistant Director of Campus Activities
Della LaVeck
Administrative Assistant/Office Manager
315-464-5618
campact@ngskmc-eis.net
New Student Orientation
There are three in-person new student orientation sessions for incoming students at Upstate Medical University. You are assigned to a NSO session based on your program of study. The following are the three session dates and the academic programs which attend each session. Please make sure to have your NSO session dates on your personal calendar.
New Student Orientation Session I - June 6 & 7, 2024
College of Health Professions
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT)
Physician Assistant (PA)
New Student Orientation Session II - July 25 & 26, 2024
Norton College of Medicine
MD and MD/PhD
New Student Orientation Session III - August 22 & 23, 2024
College of Graduate Studies
College of Health Professions
Behavioral Analysis Studies, Clinical Perfusion, Medical Imaging Sciences, Medical Prep/Medical Scholars, Medical Technology, Medical Biotechnology, Radiation Therapy and Respiratory Therapy
Norton College of Medicine
Master of Public Health
College of Nursing Students: CON students will have an online virtual new student orientation program in Brightspace that will go live in early August 2024.
College of Health Professions BPS Imaging CT & MR Students: Students in both programs will also have an online new student orientation program in Brightspace that will go live in early August 2024.
White Coat Ceremony Information
Planned for Saturday, August 24, 2024 for all incoming College of Health Professions students, incoming College of Nursing students, and the incoming Norton College of Medicine medical students. All students will need to bring their white coat to the ceremony. The respective Alumni Association for each college purchases the first white coat for students and will work with students to get white coats ordered before orientation.
All ceremonies will be live-streamed. A link will be sent to students a week prior to the event and links will also be posted on this page.
Specific times, locations, and additional ceremony details will be posted during the spring semester.
Translation Services
Sign language interpreters
The white coat ceremony will be live streamed, recorded and captioned. Graduates and guests may request a sign language interpreter by emailing campact@ngskmc-eis.net. Please note: We ask that you submit your request by July 24, 2024 so that we have time to coordinate services.
Language translations
While we are unable to provide live translation services, we would like to suggest that family members in need of translation services consider using Google Translate, this is a free service that translates between English and over 100 languages.