While the majority of Tigers are awaiting finals and/or the winter holidays, the seniors are either preparing for winter graduation or working on their post-grad plans. Some seniors are applying to higher education programs or planning gap-year travels while others are securing jobs to begin working right out of college.
Nina Nevill, senior history major, described her senior year experience, as she is currently applying to masters and Ph.D. programs.
“It’s definitely a different kind of crazy. It’s kind of like senior year in high school, where I felt classes weren’t difficult, and I didn’t have as much homework, per se, but I have a lot of little tasks, and it’s just [about] managing long-term deadlines,” Nevill said.
Nevill has also considered taking a gap year and traveling in case her higher studies plans don’t work out this year.
That is what Rachel Daniel, senior accounting and Spanish double-major, plans to do before pursuing her master’s degree after graduating early this winter. She then plans to pursue an internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the spring of 2019 before taking a few months to travel. She considers her time for traveling, made possible by graduating early, a six-month gap year.
“I’m going to go see my family in India for a few weeks, then go to Europe for four months. I’m very excited. Then I’m going to go for a masters in accountancy,” Daniel said.
Starjill Shelvin, a senior mechanical engineering major, will be graduating in the spring and will start working right after graduation.
“As the year comes to a close, I’ll be heading to Austin. I have a full-time offer with Dell,” Shelvin said.
When asked what the process of securing a job was like, Shelvin bestowed wisdom to underclassmen who are about to go through a similar process.
“To be truthful, the journey is pretty rigorous. You can’t afford to slack off. Make sure you’re updating your LinkedIn and your résumés. The number one thing that I would recommend is reaching out and making connections,” Shelvin said.
These three seniors offered the following advice to their fellow Tigers who are working through the rest of their undergraduate careers and who will soon also have to make their own post-grad plans.
“Make a schedule that you enjoy and don’t take on too much. I will say that’s one thing I would tell my younger self is don’t take on more than you can handle. You should have enough space in your schedule where if you wanted to add one more thing, you could because it just means you have free time,” Daniel said.
“Even though you might not plan on working at a specific company, just hand them your resume and introduce yourself at career fairs. You never know anytime down the road if they want to offer you a job,” Shelvin said.
“Never start worrying about post-grad plans, but do start preparing for graduate school — if you’re not taking a gap year — as early as the summer before your senior year. Research the faculty at the university … because you want to make sure you’re going to a [graduate] school with faculty whose research you’re interested in,” Nevill said.
“It’s four years you’re never going to get back, so you might as well enjoy it while you can,” Daniel said.
The Center for Experiential Learning and Career Success offers walk-in hours from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday answer questions about post-graduate plans.
