I attended the Grad School Expo in the Ohio Union Ballroom on September 10th from about 1:15-1:45pm. I really wanted to attend this event because I am aiming to graduate in Spring 2021 so grad school decisions are something that I have to think about in my very near future. I feeling like if your major is something that is directly related to a career, like business or engineering, the grad school expo would have been helpful but since I am aiming to do psychology (or law, we’ll see), this was grouped in with a general “Arts and Sciences” table that lacked in-depth resources and knowledge that I had hoped to gain.

I’m hoping to graduate a year early because I can easily finish my major and both of my minors within a three year time frame and it would be really nice to save that extra year of tuition and to also get a head start on my life. However, my future is so open ended right now, so this adds some stress about what I really need to do to get to where I want to be, and even what it is exactly that I feel called upon to do. This expo was beneficial to me, though, because it definitely exposed all of my blind spots (apparently I have a lot) in relation to applying to grad school and what that all entails. It made me realize that I need to sit down with a career coach and get some general guidance about what to do and how to do it. Additionally, it made me realize how badly I need to attend both the fairs for psychology post-grad endeavors and law school later in the semester.

This expo also made me call into question if I want to take a year off in between undergrad and post grad to work, volunteer, travel, and/or whatever it is I feel compelled to do during that year so that I still have a chance to have fun and be young while also making myself more competitive to schools and enhancing personal growth. I definitely feel like I left the expo with way more questions than answers but I am glad about this because I would rather discover my questions and have the ability to get them answered now rather than discovering them at the last minute and not ever receiving proper answers.

One thing that I really wish the expo offered was general information on applying to grad schools and resources to help determine what programs would be best for you, since there are seemingly infinite amounts of options. For your K-12 years, you are constantly bombarded with so much information about college and how to apply but you really do have to deliberately seek out information in undergrad to get any answers at all. This has inspired me to become more actively involved in furthering my education and getting the answers that I need so that I can get to where I need to go by reaching out to people that I hope have answers and useful guidance.