Author: Chad Wyszynski
For most of us, the time beyond graduation is an insidious void toward which we’re traveling much faster than we’d like. Well-meaning relatives, friends, and acquaintances constantly remind us of our inescapable course toward the unknown with that one apparently innocent question, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” We may have ideas, we may even have career plans, but we never really know until sometime after that day in mid-May.
Fortunately for us, we are not the first to venture into the world beyond college. Oxy has prepared and sent around 121 years worth of other students into the variety of fields one would expect from a liberal arts school. Last year’s grads went to places as varied as Greenpeace and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the National Institute of Health and the Discovery Channel, not to mention those that went on to any kind of graduate or professional school.
In an effort to quell the fear of staring into the abyss beyond graduation, I interviewed several alums walking each of the main types of post-Oxy paths: graduate, law, and medical schools, and, of course, those in the working world. Their experience can elucidate that void beyond graduation and provide a good idea of what it’s like to get to and be at these different places.
Graduate School
Although coursework may be tedious at times, it is difficult to attend Oxy for four years and not be inspired academically at least once. The gap from enjoying classes to considering graduate school is not very large.
UCLA Ph.D students and Oxy grads Caroline Bunnell ’08 (History, Religious Studies minor) and Simchi Cohen ’07 (ECLS, Creative Writing Emphasis) both started out enjoying their classes but not seriously considering graduate school. “I didn’t know I wanted to apply to graduate school until I met [ECLS] Professor Montag- my senior year at Oxy,” Cohen said. “I just didn’t think I had it in me.” Professor Montag encouraged Cohen to apply, and when she did, she was awarded a full ride with a living stipend to UCLA’s Comparative Literature Ph.D program.
Bunnell spoke to her professors about the possibility of graduate school at the end of her junior year. “I talked to Profs about it and felt like it might be something I’d like to do,” Bunnell said, “so I just applied to see what would happen. I figured I’d make my decision when I got my acceptances or rejections.” When she received her acceptance letters in May, which included half-tuition offers to Religious Studies MAs at Harvard and University of Chicago and a full ride plus a living stipend to UCLA’s History Ph.D, she decided on the Ph.D program.
According to Bunnell, professors played an integral role in helping her select schools and build her applications. “The most help I had was from professors,” Bunnell said. Although college and graduate school applications bear many similarities, finding a graduate school is a much more involved process. It’s vital to know the specific research interests of the faculty at a prospective school, and that is one of the places where our faculty can help.
Both Bunnell and Cohen applied during their senior years, but Professor Montag recommends applying during the year following graduation due to the amount of work the application demands. Cohen warns against the dangers of burning out. “By the time I’m done with my Ph.D, I’ll have been in school for 23 years without any breaks,” she said. Unlike undergraduates, Ph.D students don’t take summer breaks; Cohen spent this past summer doing research for the Mellon Grant she was recently awarded.
Although Cohen felt Oxy’s ECLS department prepared her well for the Ph.D, she admitted that her Ph.D program is significantly more challenging than Oxy. “It’s not just me. Everyone feels like [the UCLA Ph.D program] is much more difficult than undergrad,” Cohen said.
During her first year, Cohen took three courses per ten-week term. Her weeks consisted of doing the 800 pages of required reading and attending one three-hour seminar per course. At the end of each term, Cohen had to write a 25-30 page paper for each course.
The Comparative Literature Ph.D takes about seven years to complete. Students take classes for the first three years and spend the following four working on their dissertations. According to Cohen, many Ph.D candidates do not finish their dissertations within four years. “Ph.D students hope to finish on time,” Cohen said.
Ph.D students begin teaching during their second year and continue to teach for the rest of their time in the program, if they can. Cohen is in her second year, and will teach undergraduate courses in comparative literature in addition to taking classes.
Different programs have different durations; Bunnell’s History Ph.D is an estimated five years. Bunnell encourages aspiring academics not to be daunted by the number of years a Ph.D requires. There is no obligation to complete the program. Thanks to her scholarship, Bunnell plans to take it year by year. She’s still investigating her interest in working with homeless women while pursuing her Ph.D.
Cohen and Bunnell’s biggest advice to graduate school hopefuls: get to know your professors. “The easiest way to get to know your professors is by coming in to office hours,” Cohen said. “They want students to visit them; that’s why they have office hours.”
Medical School
According to Health Professions Advisor Cecilia Fox, roughly 25 percent of incoming freshmen express interest in a career as a doctor. Although this number decreases significantly for each subsequent grade, med schools such as Boston University still receive 11,000 applications for their 200 spots. Fox calls medical school “the Olympics of academics” for this reason.
The first step in this Olympiad is deciding whether or not to enter it. The easiest way to do this is to visit Fox. “As soon as you’re considering medicine, talk to Cecilia Fox,” Jeremy Abe ’07 (Biochemistry and Theater) said. “She’ll get you on the right path.” Fox believes in the importance of practical experience in determining whether medicine is the right field. “Immerse yourself in that environment and see if it matches your personality,” Fox said.
Yohualli Balderas-Medina ’07 (Biology), a second year med student at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, did just that. While at Oxy, she volunteered in the pediatric ward of a local hospital, helping to integrate play into children’s’ recovery. She also worked at a pediatric therapy center, which dealt with all kinds of therapy, such as physical and speech. “The experiences solidified the fact that I wanted to go into medicine and that doctor was the right role for me,” Balderas-Medina said.
The application process consists of three rounds. The first round is a fairly standard application that goes out to every school to which one applies; this is the application that requires MCAT scores. If the schools approve of the first application, then they’ll send a second application which is specific to their program. After the second round comes the interview, the final part of the process.
An interview doesn’t mean an acceptance. Abe had three interviews but no acceptances. “OHSU [Oregon Health & Science University] told me I needed more clinical experience,” he said. Abe is currently shadowing a general practitioner while re-applying to med school.
Since the process is so involved, Abe applied the year following his graduation. Mike Salisbury ’08 (Biology) is doing the same. “I wanted to focus on what was going on at Oxy my senior year,” Salisbury said. “I could study for the MCAT the following year.”
Salisbury worked closely with Fox to prepare his application. “[Fox] made sure my application was the best of our combined abilities,” he said.
Most students apply to 15-20 schools. Balderas-Medina, however, applied to one. “I applied to USC and got lucky,” she said.
Medical school is divided into three distinct sections: courses, clinical rotation, and residency. At USC, students
spend their first two years reviewing previous concepts and studying the body systems. The next two years expose students to the variety of departments in which a doctor can work, such as surgery and internal medicine. While in their final year of clinical rotation, their fourth year, students apply for a residency. Residencies can be as short as three years for pediatricians and as long as 13 years for neurosurgeons.
During her first year at USC, Balderas-Medina had lectures from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. four days a week. “It’s a little overwhelming,” Balderas-Medina said. “But Oxy prepared me academically. I know how to study.”
Despite knowing how to study, Balderas-Medina says that Oxy did not prepare her for the format of exams. Most med school exams are multiple choice, which she did not practice as much at Oxy. “Oxy does a lot of second and third order questions [questions that involve explaining the answer]. Med school is mostly first [rote identification or questions with definite right or wrong answers],” Balderas-Medina said.
For aspiring med students, Balderas-Medina recommends exploring the various roles in medicine. Fox likes to remind students of other health professions such as pharmacist or physical therapist. “Try to find your place in medicine,” Balderas-Medina said.
Fox, whose job includes aiding all types of aspiring medical professionals, can be found in Johnson 111, which is in the hallway across from J104. She can be reached by e-mail at fox@oxy.edu.
Law School
A search for attorneys on the Alumni Database (ASK) yields around 2000 results. This doesn’t include lawyers or alums who decided not to register for the database. According to CDC Director and Pre-Law Adviser Valerie Savior, this means that law is a popular career for Oxy grads.
Andrea Nieves ’07 (American Studies) is a student who will soon be on that long list. She’s currently in her second year of law school at NYU, which US News and World report ranks as the fifth best law school in the country for 2008.
Nieves discovered her interest in law while exploring fields in which she could use her American Studies major. “I did some tutoring, but wasn’t into it,” Nieves said. She then decided to look into law.
During the spring semester of her sophomore year, Nieves took law courses at UCLA through the Law Fellows program, a law program for students of diverse backgrounds. She had to get up at 8 a.m. to drive to Westwood every Saturday, but, through the program, she realized her interest in law. Nieves then participated in the PLUS (Pre-Law Undergraduate Scholars) Program, which allowed her to take more law courses over the summer.
Having enjoyed the classes and clarified her interest in law, Nieves decided to apply to law school during her senior year. “Applying with professors at hand made the application process easier,” Nieves said. “[English Writing] Professor Burkdall must have read 13 drafts of my personal statement.”
Although Oxy has a pre-law advisor, Nieves sought help mostly from the UCLA counselors with whom she had already worked extensively. That year, former Oxy President, and former Dean of UCLA Law School, Susan Prager met with all of Oxy’s law applicants to discuss their choice of schools and their applications. Nieves also attended all the law school presentations that came to Oxy. “I ended up applying to 18 schools, which is a bit excessive,” Nieves said. “Most people apply to 10.”
Nieves took the LSAT in September in order to send out all of her applications in October. “Applying early increases your chance of getting financial aid,” Nieves said. It also meant that she received her acceptance letters in December.
Law school is a three-year professional school. Although curricula may vary, most first-year law students take the same courses all over the country. Nieves took eight classes during her first year, four per semester, just like at Oxy. As a professional school, students are required to have an internship in the field every summer. Students find internships through a professor’s recommendation.
As for the work, it’s a step up from Oxy. “I felt as prepared for law school as students from the big Ivy League schools, but none of us were really prepared,” Nieves said. She found Oxy’s writing-intensive curriculum helpful in dealing with law school’s exams, which are four to six hours long and all written. “People bring food but no one has time to eat,” Nieves said.
Aspiring law students should consider making an appointment with Savior by going online to http://departments.oxy.edu/career/index.html. Immediately next to the section that says “Upcoming Events,” which is in the middle of the page, is a small box that says “Appointments.”
The Working World
They call it the real world, a term that implies that everything we’ve experienced so far has been a kind of false reality, a fantasy. There, people worry about things such as taxes and medical insurance, worries many of us have never had to address for ourselves. Though it is built up to be a difficult and scary place, Oxy students do more than just survive out there. The question is: How have they done it? I asked a few Oxy grads about their experiences in “the real world.”
Silva Zeneian ’01 (Politics and Economics), currently the Vice President of IDS Real Estate Group, came to Oxy with no idea what she wanted to do after graduation, which, she assures me, is healthy. Her solution was to try everything she could and see how well her personality fit the day-to-day tasks of the job.
Each summer, she interned in a different career path. “Internships are a good way to get a taste of the industry,” Zeneian said. She has been working for one of the companies for whom she interned ever since she graduated.
And how did she find the internship? Networking. The CEO of the company happened to be the director of a summer camp for which she volunteered every summer.
Taylor Arnett ’04 (Economics for Business Management), who currently works as a Financial Analyst for the Koll Company, a real estate company, also attests to the power of networking. He found his first job through an ad in the Career Development Center’s digest; the ad was posted by the owner of Frazier Capital, who is himself an Oxy grad. “Oxy grads in the working world like to pull from Oxy and the Claremont Colleges,” Arnett said. Having kindled his interest in finance and investment through the Blythe Fund, an Oxy investment club, Arnett figured Frazier Capital offered good exposure to the real estate industry.
After two years at Frazier, Arnett moved to a more involved position at a larger real estate company. He assures me that it’s common for young professionals to go through two or three jobs, even in different industries, during the first few years out of college. “Once you feel comfortable in an industry, then go for it,” he said.
Dana Volk ’02 (Politics, Art History and Anthropology Minors), now the Associate Director of Alumni Relations at Oxy, switched industries two years after her graduation. After a leisurely post-graduation summer, Volk took a job as a tutor for Score Educational Center, a job she found through her sister’s own interest in the organization. Score was a tutoring center that doubled as a business management training program, so when Volk climbed to the top of the program in two years, she began to look for other employment.
By chance, Volk visited Oxy’s Web site and checked the employment page: a job in event planning caught her eye. “It seemed like a good way to get into a field I loved,” said Volk. “It would also be nice to have happy clients.” Volk’s old boss from Telefund gave her a strong recommendation, and Volk has been working at Oxy ever since. “The past three years have felt like no time at all,” Volk said.
Based on the experience of these alums, it seems that internships and networking are two of the most helpful tools for navigating the working world. For advice on how to build your network and how to find internships, m
ake an appointment online with any of the CDC career counselors at http://departments.oxy.edu/career/index.html.
Oxy’s Resources
Savior reminds us that developing our interests and career plans is a process. And you don’t have to wait until your senior year to begin. If you are a first-year with no idea what you want to major in, let alone what career interests you, the CDC can even help devise a plan for that. Make an appointment online at http://departments.oxy.edu/career/index.html.
The Alumni Relations Office and CDC host many networking events for students and alums. These are great places to meet friendly alums from a variety of fields. “If alums are back at Oxy, it’s because they love it. It gives them a warm fuzzy feeling inside. And you come with that package of being here,” Zeneian said. They may wear suits, but at some point, they probably had a class in Johnson or a late night cram session in the library. For a list of upcoming events hosted by the CDC, check out their calendar at http://departments.oxy.edu/career/calendar.html.
Beyond the CDC, Oxy’s alumni database has a huge list of alums from nearly every discipline. Members of ASK have agreed to be listed, so they realize that Oxy students may contact them. “Many alums would be delighted if an Oxy student asked them for advice,” Zeneian said. ASK can be found on the CDC’s Web site by clicking on “Alumni Network” on the left-hand frame.
Another major resource Oxy has is its faculty and staff. “This is the only time in life when people are literally waiting for you to ask them questions,” Cohen said. Talk to professors and advisers about your interests. At the very least, they can direct you to others who can help.
Concluding Thoughts
This is by no means an all-encompassing survey of what Oxy graduates have done or are doing. It covers only generalities, such as “the working world” rather than specific industries. Regardless of these inadequacies, this bare-bones survey hopefully presents a clearer image of the major paths which Oxy students have taken- an image enough to dispel the worst of that paralyzing fear of the unknown that lurks beyond commencement.
Oxy has the resources, whether they are on-campus advisers or alums, to encourage all kinds of post-graduation interests. Finding information on specific industries or programs is a matter of taking advantage of the resources available to us.
We still may not know exactly what we’re going to do following graduation, but at least we can have a much clearer idea, and so have an intelligent response to all those well-meaning people who ask us the hopefully-no-longer-dreaded question, “What are you doing after college?”
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