It’s that time again when students start worrying about plans for next year. On second thought, maybe not. As inappropriately early as it may seem, the good folks at U of T’s Career Centre have already started preparing students for their lives beyond undergrad. On Oct. 2 and 3, the Graduate and Professional Schools Fair took place at the heart of U of T’s student services, the Koffler Centre.
For the fourth year in a row, students from diverse academic disciplines and myriad career goals came to explore the various opportunities that schools from Canada, the United States, England, and Australia had to offer. In order to allow people the opportunity to take a thorough look at all that the fair had to offer, the event was spread across two days for the first time.
More than 65 programs covering a broad array of professional specialties were on hand to satisfy the tastes of the community. The schools ranged from graduate programs to law and medical schools and even post-graduate colleges. All were trying to attract to their schools what one representative called the “informed” student body from an “excellent academic structure.”
As expected, many of the students at the fair were nearing the completion of their undergraduate degrees. However, according to Glen Matadeen, co-ordinator of student outreach at the centre, they were by no means the only ones welcome. As he explained, the fair was geared towards those from all levels. “We encourage our students to start doing their research…from year one,” Matadeen advised. In fact, many of the students attending the fair were only at the lower stages of the undergraduate food chain.
Jenny Ann Chen, for example, a second-year life science major, was attempting to get an early start on her search for pharmaceutical programs. She found that the opportunities presented at the fair pushed her to gather information for disciplines she had only briefly thought about before.
Visham Siva, another second year student in life sciences, was also “browsing around” for courses related to his studies. He found the fair to be quite helpful in aiding his quest for post-undergrad information, stating that this event was much “bigger than last year” with “more places and people to talk to.”
Schools as familiar as the University of Alberta, as well-known as McGill’s law school, and as unheard of as the University of Wollongong all came to share with U of T what they had to offer, and many individuals took advantage of this.
Perhaps the only improvement that coordinators might keep in mind for future fairs is to avoid this year’s lacklustre advertising campaign. Computer science major Mohamad Rai captured the essence of many students’ disappointment amidst learning too late of the occurrence of this event. “I only wish I had heard about this earlier,” he stated. While Matadeen was quick to point out that the career centre had taken such marketing measures as mass e-mailing student groups and posting notices around campus, many students mentioned that they heard of the event through word of mouth.
