For this week’s blog post, I thought I should describe some essential parts of daily MPA life. These are things to which you’ll become accustomed very quickly on a daily basis.

1. MPA Mailboxes: Professors and TAs will return any graded assignments to your mailbox. Mailboxes are located on the fourth floor of CBA in McCombs. There is a room with four cabinets with cubby holes. Each cubby is assigned to one MPA student. It is here that you will find your graded homework, tests and announcements from the MPA Office.
2. Blackboard: At my undergraduate institution, we had an online platform called eLearning, which professors used to post announcements, readings and assignments for the class. At UT, we use Blackboard. Most professors in the MPA program will use Blackboard to post the class syllabus, additional readings, class notes, practice tests and solutions to assigned homework problems. In my government and not-for-profit accounting class, we even submit homework assignments on blackboard.
3. Name plate: At the beginning of the fall semester, the MPA Office gave each student a name plate to place in front of his/her seat in class. If there is one piece of advice I can give students, it’s don’t forget your nameplate! Professors usually stipulate in their syllabi that they expect students to have their nameplates for each class. Additionally, some professors will call on students who don’t have their nameplates.
4. Suit lockers: During recruiting, you will be wearing a suit a lot. Most likely, you will only need it for an event immediately after school or for an interview in the middle of the day. To avoid wearing a suit all day, you can check out suit lockers from the MPA Office. It’s free, and the lockers are conveniently located around the corner from the changing rooms. You only need your UT EID to check out the lockers. They are available for check out between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. A word of warning: If you don’t return your locker key on time, you will be locked out of the on-campus recruiting system until you return the key or pay a lost key fee. This is the system you will use during recruiting to apply for jobs and schedule interviews.
5. Bevo Bucks: Many universities have their own version of this type of system where students put money on their student ID cards and use this like a debit card at on campus diners and select area merchants. You will also use Bevo Bucks to print in the main business school computer lab, the Millenium Lab, and in the Perry Castaneda Library.

I hope that by listing these five things you’ll have a better understanding of daily life in the MPA program. Sometimes describing commonplace things like the ones above paints a move vivid picture of what day-to-day to life is like here.