How to Succeed During Your Junior Year
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Fall
- Do something to impress your professors and to stand out from your fellow students so that when you ask for a letter of recommendation, your professors will have something interesting to write. Work with a professor on a class paper, attend a field school, make it a point to speak up in every class discussion. Other suggestions are below.
- Update your Action Plan and check your remaining graduation requirements on WebAdvisor before October when you register for the Spring semester.
- If you are not going to Harlaxton or planning to study abroad this year, start studying a second foreign language.
- Take a leadership role in an extra-curricular club.
- If you have completed two years of a foreign language with good grades, inquire with your language professor about the possibility of tutoring that language. The Foreign Languages Department actually PAYS people to do this!
- Begin investigating graduate programs even if you are not certain you want to go to graduate school.
- Tell your advisor you would like to present some of your work at a conference. He/She can tell you about some of the options. All students should present a paper, honors students must do it.
- Think about applying for a prestigious scholarship like a Fulbright. Scholarships like this can pay to send you abroad. Talk to your advisor about the possibilities.
- Begin studying for the GRE, GMAT, MAT or LSAT, whichever is appropriate to your proposed field of graduate study. Purchase a book with a CD-ROM practice guide to help you. Barrons and Kaplan offer the best guides.
- Start building your professional network by finding out which other graduates of UE are doing work or are in graduate schools that interest you. You can get to the Archaeology and Art History Department's Alumni page by clicking on the Stay in Touch! section or visit the department blog. The blog and the alumni page list what many of our graduates are doing now. Find someone who is at a graduate school you find interesting or has a job you would like and then get in contact with that person. Most of our graduates are happy to help fellow UE students by offering advice, tips and information.
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Begin investigating jobs to learn what kinds of skills employers are looking for. Find jobs you would like to have and see what kind of qualifications employers expect.
- Look at the want ads in the local newspapers of cities where you would like to settle after graduation.
- Check out some real job advertisements.
Spring
- Apply for graduation - fill out the form in the Registrar's Office on the first floor of Olmsted Hall. You must do this one year prior to graduation. If you are at Harlaxton, email Linda Bathon (lb24); she will send you the form electronically.
- January: Call the Psychology Department to find out when the Psychology Club will be offering the Practice GRE (488-2520). In the past they have charged $10.00 to take the practice test, which is an incredible bargain.
- Update your Action Plan and check your remaining graduation requirements on WebAdvisor before March when you register for Fall Semester.
- If you are planning on going to graduate school immediately after graduation, plan your Fall Semester schedule in such a way that you are only taking 12 credit hours. This will allow you the extra time you need to properly apply for graduate school. It takes a great deal of time, as much time as you spend on one course, to put together a grad school application that will actually be accepted. It is difficult to find the time to put in to your applications when you are taking 15 or, God forbid, 18 credit hours!
- If you are in the Honors Program, put together your proposal for completing your honors project. Consider trying to present a paper at an undergraduate conference.
- Contact the Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education for help with creating a resume and developing interview skills.
- Make a list of the top 12 graduate schools you
want to apply to, including deadline date of application, number of
letters of recommendation they expect, and special provisions for
application (i.e. how many languages they expect you to know,
minimum GPA and GRE scores if given, field work experience they
expect etc.). Be sure to indicate the name of one professor at each
school with whom you would be interested in studying.
- Present this list to your advisor so that the two of you may discuss which schools are best for you.
- Be prepared to be rejected by most of the schools you apply to, competition is fierce.
- Make some time to visit the top two or three schools in which you are interested. Find out how many students receive financial aid, what the holdings of the library are in your area of interest, what lab resources they have, etc. Meet with the person with whom you would be interested in studying to see if you can get along with him/her. This also allows you to meet some of the people who will be making admission decisions, which will give you an advantage over applicants they have not met when they are deciding who to admit and to whom they should give financial aid.
- Interview a graduate student at one or more of the schools you are interested in attending. You can get tips for questions to ask from the Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education, as well as from your advisor. Ask the director of graduate studies in the department to which you want to apply for the names of graduate students with whom you may speak.
