The Career Development Center hosted a graduate school fair last Wednesday, as a part of events all week aimed to help prepare students who plan on applying to grad school.

From researching graduate schools to taking entrance exams and starting the application process, Monday’s event, “How to apply to graduate school” answered questions and gave students insight into the rigorous and often competitive application process.

Tuesday’s workshop, titled “Life as a graduate student,” detailed the changes a new graduate school student will encounter at classes and in their career.

Jennifer Buchanan, a graduate school student in counseling and student affairs gave some insight into life as a graduate student.

There are some big differences between graduate and undergraduate school, Buchanan said. The cost and workload of graduate school is larger, and because students have a degree, they probably are working or looking for a job in their field.

“There is a lot more reading, two to three times the amount I had as an undergrad,” Buchanan said. “I have class one night a week and an internship. Papers are longer and projects bigger. I also work during the day. It’s a balancing act.”

Buchanan was a key planner in the biggest event of the week, the tri-college graduate and professional school fair, held on Wednesday. She said that for the last seven years the event has been held at Concordia, but prior to that the fair rotated between Concordia, NDSU and MSUM.

Forty-four graduate and professional schools attended the fair and met with 139 students exploring continuing on to a graduate program. Buchanan’s goal was to have 150 students attend and said she was happy with the turnout.

“We got a lot of good feedback, the event was very successful,” Buchanan said. “For it being the first event I have planned, it was awesome.”

Buchanan says next year the event will be held at NDSU for those interested in attending and will continue the rotation through the tri-college system in years to come.

If students are interested in graduate school but missed last week’s events, they can visit the Career Development Center and speak with staff who will help with resumes, cover letters, applications, internships and job searches. The Career Development Center holds daily walk-in resume review hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Buchanan said other ways students can prepare for graduate school are to research the college and programs they are interested in, call and speak to someone in the department and “really find out what the program is all about.”

Click here to visit the Career Development Center’s website

BY KAYLA VAN EPS
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