Attention Juniors!Get Involved!

It’s not too late to get involved and strengthen your graduate school

applications!

I don’t have a lot of time…Students can do to many time-limited activities to

strengthen an application• Informational interviewing:– Sitting down with a professional once or several

times to discuss the professional field, educational opportunities, ways to prepare, trends and challenges in the field, etc.

• Short-term activities:– Get involved in a short term project like a Habitat for

Humanity build, Race for the Cure, a food drive, Buckeye-thon, etc.

I’m already involved in other projects…

Great! Find ways to expand on that involvement so you can get more out of it!• Leadership:

– Can you campaign for a leadership position in your student group? Can you lead a research project in your current lab? Can you take on additional responsibility at your volunteer position?

• Expansion:– Can you help create additional services where you are currently involved? Can you

expand the population your organization helps? Can you help create connections with community agencies?

• Leverage your skills:– Does your current project need someone to help with data analysis and you

happen to be very good at statistics? Does your current organization need a website makeover and you happen to be good at developing web-content? Does your current project need additional exposure and you are great at writing letters-to-the-editor or you already host a blog with a 200 person readership in the area?

But I have to study…Even commitment to academics can create additional avenues for

personal development!• You learn best when you teach others:

– Create a structured tutoring network in your classroom or in your major cohort.

• Ask for help:– Consider developing an MCAT or GRE study mentoring program with seniors

who did well.• Start a book club:

– Select books from a variety of authors, genres, and cultural or historic contexts.

– This is a good way to study vocabulary.– Your personal statement will be more interesting to the reader if you use a

variety of sentence structures and phrases. This is a good way to explore different composition styles.