An array of brochures, free pencils and even fortune cookies confronted students and professionals in the Great Hall on Wednesday as they strolled aisles lined with graduate program representatives from across the country.
More than 1,000 students attended the 1998 Graduate and Professional School Day, which was sponsored by the Office for Special Learning Opportunities. The fair offered students information on graduate schools and the application process.
College representatives from 94 programs as far away as California and as prestigious as Notre Dame had representatives at the fair.
The fair exposed students to different graduate schools and offered them opportunities to talk with representatives from schools one-on-one, said Lisa Murphy, the events coordinator in the special learning office. The job fair also offered programs throughout the day to familiarize students with the application process and the admission tests.
Line Odegaard, a psychology senior who attended the day-long event, said she hasn’t decided if she is going to graduate school but went to the fair to find out about her options.
Odegaard walked the aisles obtaining information from various Minnesota colleges, including the University.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Dr. Celia Wolk Gershenson, a psychology faculty member, asked Odegaard while ascertaining what field in psychology she wanted to enter.
It is really important to figure out what you want to do, Wolk Gershenson said to Odegaard. “If you’re not focused, you’re not going to be admitted,” she said.
Lupe Martinez, a representative for the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, said she tells prospective students not to let requirements intimidate them because numbers are not the only thing colleges consider.
Martinez recommended that students take control of the application process and to get started early.
“It was really helpful,” Odegaard said after the fair. “Instead of calling, I can just go to this and everything is under one roof.”