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March 03, 2008
Advising Tip: What now?
Trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your life? Don’t know where to start?
For those of you who have yet to declare a concentration, a great place to start would be the Concentration Fair (March 26th, 11-3, Michigan Union) where all the LSA departments will be in ONE PLACE (no phone calls, no appointments, no running around in the cold). You can ask questions about the concentration or minors the department offers, talk to current students, and start thinking about what might be the best fit for you. LSA has a few new minors this year, including five in Chemistry and one in Peace and Social Justice (offered through the RC, but open to all LSA students).
For those of you who have declared a concentration and are looking towards graduate programs, March is also full of graduate school preparation/information sessions. Keep an eye out on the Advise Me Weekly homepage. For example, Grad School 101 is on Tuesday March 4th (3-4:30, 1200 Chem) and Exploring Career Pathways for Graduate Professional Degree (Tuesday March 11th, same time and place) as part of the Planning Your Next Steps: Events for Juniors and Seniors series. There are also sessions specific to Law schools and Medical schools.
For those of you who applied to specific schools or programs— Organizational Studies or Communications, or Ross School of Business, Public Policy, Architecture--and were not successful, all is NOT lost. Make an appointment to come in and talk with your advisor about your next steps (764-0332). There is such flexibility in the College of LSA that there is often a way to meet your interests and goals even if your original plan hasn’t come to fruition. You can talk about designing your own concentration (the Individual Concentration Program), or designing your own degree program (the Bachelors of General Studies), or just take coursework from other colleges to supplement what you learn in LSA. Advisors can also help you think more broadly about the skills and knowledge you want to acquire, and suggest different means of doing so.
For those of you who are done thinking about school and want to think about a job, or a career (and hopefully both!) there’s no better place to start than the Career Center (3200 Student Activity Building). They have information on internships, job fairs, and can help with your resume and interview skills. Another important service they offer is the reference letter service where they will store and mail out your reference letters for you (for a nominal fee). This means you can have your professor write a recommendation NOW, even if you aren’t applying for graduate schools until 2011. Their website is pretty extensive…I highly recommend it. In conjunction with working with the Career Center, don’t forget to talk with your concentration advisor about internship, research or other summer opportunities.
Posted by yunecs at 08:00 AM