 English & Theatre
Planning by Academic Year
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Junior ] [ Senior
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It is not too early to think about long term goals, since many examinations for professional schools take place in the junior year to enable students to prepare for graduate or professional school applications in students' senior year.
Start asking professors for recommendations. (See Appendix A for a handy form.) In fact, whenever you are involved in a club, volunteer for an extra-curricular activity, or have a job, ask your supervisor or
moderator to write you a recommendation for your file. Go to the Career Development and Placement Center about establishing your file.
Located in Ciszek Hall, (formerly Eastern Christian Studies Building) on Mulberry Street (next to the Wellness Center), this office provides a location where students can find information on job-seeking and employment opportunities. The Center is open from
8:30 to 4:30, Monday through Friday. Career counselors guide students through the job-seeking process, provide information about job and career opportunities, and help students apply their interests and talents to career fields.
Bookmark the Center's website – <http://academic.uofs.edu/department/ocs/>. You'll find it helpful when you need information about writing resumes and cover letters, and when you want to discover more
about career opportunities for students, including internships, volunteer opportunities, and job positions. As you move toward graduation, the Center may become even more important in your career planning, for it assists students with the lifelong process of career development. (AH)
If
you are interested in Law School, go to the Law School Admission Council's web site (<http://www.lsac.org/>). Look at the section "Getting Started," and read the section "Thinking
About Law School." Get to know the pre-law advisor and join the Pre-Law Society. Sean Kiley writes, "If you know that you want to apply to law school, I would begin looking into the process as early as possible to make the process as easy as possible. The Law
School Admission Council makes information about the LSAT and the process of applying to law school available at <www.lsac.org>. Dr. Homer, a professor in the History Department, is the pre-law advisor on campus; he also offers an
LSAT workshop that I found pretty helpful (and much less expensive than those offered by services like Kaplan and the Princeton Review)." (SK)
If
you are interested in graduate school, talk to your department advisor. You will need to take the Graduate Records Exam (a.k.a. GRE). The General Test, required by almost every program regardless of field or degree sought, can be scheduled individually at your
convenience. The Subject Test of Literature in English, required by most programs, is offered only a few times a year at a limited number of locations. Look at the web site of the Educational Testing Service, which administers the GRE, to find out about registration deadlines and test dates (<http://www.gre.org/>).
If
you are interested in medical school, you should talk to Dr. Mary Engel about the MCAT (Office of Fellowships, x. 7901).
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As
you think about various career paths, consider the tremendous resources available to you through our alumni. Write or e-mail and ask their advice. The Alumni Department web site (<http://matrix.scranton.edu/alum/al.shtml>) contains information about The University of Scranton Alumni
Society. More specifically, the site contains a link to an alumni "on line community," an electronic alumni directory which contains the names, class years, addresses, phone number, email addresses, fax numbers, business title and business addresses of over 30,000 Scranton alums. The database can additionally be sorted by geographical
area, class year and career. This resource is available to all Juniors and Seniors by simply making an appointment with the Office of Alumni Relations at extension 7660. So keep the "Alumni Online Community" in mind as a possible career mentoring program as well as a resource for general information on Scranton alumni in various
fields. You can also have access to our Alumni Leadership including contacts at twenty alumni chapters across the country. This information is not protected.
Regarding
post-graduate education: register for and take relevant exams (GRE, LSAT, MCAT), and explore possible schools. The web sites for these exams (listed above) will provide you with
information about preparing for these exams. Explore programs and schools you might wish to attend.
Don't
worry if you have not yet made a decision. Sean Kiley writes: "I did not decide to go to law school until the end of my junior year, so I did not start to prepare for the LSAT until the summer before my senior year. For some students this amount of time gets the job done; other students need more time." Do prepare for exams, whether the
MCAT, LSAT, or GRE.
If
you are not interested in professional school, consider alternatives in connection with the Career Development and Placement Center. As Dr. DeRitter points out in the introduction to this section, English and Theatre majors have many possible career paths besides teaching and law.
Look for internships where you could explore possible careers (see the Career Center's web site for internship possibilities). The Center will conduct mock interviews with you, to give you a chance to develop and exercise your job interviewing skills, so give the
Center a try!
Write
a curriculum vitae or résumé, and continue adding recommendations to the dossier you have
established at the Career Development and Placement Center. (If you have not yet opened one, see directions under the sophomore year.)
Ask
at least two of your professors to write a letter of recommendation for your file. Use the sample request form in Appendix A.
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Continue to update
your vita or résumé at the Career Development and Placement Center. Continue to add recommendations to your file. Use the sample request form in
Appendix A.
For professional
schools: send applications out as early as possible. You will need faculty recommendations, so give your faculty plenty of time. Use the sample request form in Appendix A.
For other career
paths, begin to interview prospective employers. Again, it is important that you stay in touch with the Career Development and Placement Center.
Contact
University alumni who are currently engaged in careers you would like to explore. See Junior Year information.
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