We all know that senior year comprises of countless deadlines and sleepless nights trying to balance capstone, classes, job applications and graduate school applications. All while still making the most of your remaining time as an undergraduate student. Senior year is a tremendously testing time. The class of 2017 tackled these challenges and, before they leave, here is some personal advice to the class of 2018 on the dos and don’ts of senior year:

####Making the decision: Jobs or graduate school?

Being confused about whether grad school is right for you or not is entirely normal. Mitali Banerji, class of 2017, encourages picking the option that you value more.

“Since the field I want to eventually work in requires some sort of post-graduate degree, I thought going to graduate school straight after NYUAD was the smartest option for me.”

But Banerji spoke to some people working in her desired career, and realized that work experience can be really valuable as well. This left her conflicted between pursuing further education or going into the workforce.

“Continuing my studies meant that I would remain in the comfortable bubble of academia with three month long summer breaks and student discounts for a while longer. But working meant I would have the freedom to explore a lot more of the real world.

“I hate making choices, which is why I applied to both jobs and to graduate school in my senior fall,” Banerji said, adding that this is a strategy she doesn’t recommend.

Banerji ended up receiving offers from both graduate schools and employers. She ultimately decided to defer graduate school and take the job offer. “I think this experience will help me get more out of my graduate degree and also make me more competitive in the hiring market because most employers really value some sort of work experience,” she said.

####The fit factor

The fit factor, according to Gracious Nyamupachitu is the most important hiring factor these days.

“If you are all over the place and just looking to get a job, employers can see it,” Nyamupachitu said. “Take time to research .. and make your applications targeted.”

She encourages you decide early on where you are applying. Large markets such as Singapore, London, New York and Hong Kong have deadlines as early as November. Carve out time as you would for classes or studying to do applications and set a weekly goal. Network, she added, emphasizing not to rule out the UAE network. Since many people in the UAE are expatriates, the people you meet will likely know someone in the place you want to go to. Most companies are interconnected and if there are no openings in the region, they can refer you to another location.

“Apply for jobs you actually want to do and know the differences,” said Nyamupachitu. “Management consulting is different to advisory at a Big Four firm. Investment banking is different to corporate banking.”

####Finding help on campus

You might start to question your application strategy once rejections start rolling in and friends are getting into graduate schools. This is where a trusted advisor in the Career Development Center comes in handy. They keep you grounded in the reasons you decided to prioritize or pick a route in the first place, and thus are a great people to confide in when you start doubting yourself. If not the CDC, then it is always beneficial to seek consolation in a friend or mentor. The people who bring you back when worry gets the best of you are very important.

In fact, James Smoley has created a personal project in which he interviewed and filmed seniors about the process of making their capstone. He compiled his peers responses into a video and posted it on an independent website. “The idea is to alleviate the stress and confusion by giving students a resource about the capstone creation process,” said Smoley.

####Make capstone work for you

While capstones are often thought of as solitary research projects, there is some flexibility within some departments. For example, the Social Research and Public Policy department allows students to pursue socially-minded, non-academic endeavors as capstone projects, such as starting an NGO, creating an educational program or working on your own lecture series. Another option for increased capstone flexibility is doing a joint capstone, which is what Film and New Media majors Ben Marcus-Willers and Sheba Vohra did.

“My partner and I work very well together — we also have similar worldviews or outlooks on life, and we had similar aspirations for our capstone project, so for us it was a no-brainer to do a joint capstone,” said Marcus-Willers.

Their joint capstone ended up being quite large, since joint projects are expected to be bigger, which can be a bit discouraging at times. Marcus-Willers emphasized how important it is to be passionate about the topic, to be continually engaged and motivated throughout the long process. “The topic we chose for the capstone is something that we genuinely care — very deeply — about … We are actually more in love with our project now than when we started, which is such a wonderful feeling.”

Willers added that joint capstones might be more appropriate for certain majors, such as in the arts, especially since the arts require you to make entirely original work from scratch.

“Finally, it depends on what you aspire to with the project — if you just want to get the project done and out of the way, I don't think joint is the way to go. While it is so nice to have someone else in the same boat as you sharing the experience, having a partner does not make the capstone any easier. Again, because it's joint, you'll be expected to do more work,” he said.

####The importance of in-class engagement

Sometimes courses offer opportunities to meet well-connected faculty or introduce you to a possible capstone research topic. Such was the case for Annalisa Galgano. She wrote a refugee housing policy for an introductory Public Policy class group project. “Since my professor was Greek, I had the opportunity to actually propose my policy to the Minister of Defense in Greece,” Galgano explained.

After that it was like a domino effect; her professor, Sophia Kalantzakos, asked if Galgano wanted to be her research assistant over the summer. Definitely yes, she said.

“It was hard work taking interviews from dozens and dozens of Greeks. But the opportunity was so valuable,” said Galgano. Upon arrival on campus in the fall, she decided to use the interviews she had conducted as data for her capstone to build integration policy recommendations.

“So be aware of your professors’ external ties and never overlook the importance of a class assignment,” Galgano said.

####Making the most of the year

“It's never too early to start asking questions and set goals,” said Yi Yi Yeap, “but more importantly it’s never too late to work toward those goals”. So, apply, Yeap encourages, as long as there is a way to do so. You might realize in January that applications are closed for something you are interested in, but you also have a contact there.

“Reach out, it doesn't hurt. Pride tends to get the better of us as students. We worry about things like what will they think if I randomly email [them]," said Yeap.

“My mentor once told me that as students, this is the last time you can randomly email someone talking about job opportunities and sound ambitious ... and not desperate. And ambitious at this age is good,” said Nyamupachitu.

“It's easy to get caught up with everything that happens during senior year”, Yeap reflected. “Capstone, interviews, employment opportunities. But in the end, when I look back at my senior year, those aren't the things that I will remember. I'll remember impromptu 2:00 a.m. Netflix nights with my friends, the 7:00 a.m. football trainings, and the ridiculous amounts of free food events that I went to throughout the year. You know that triangle where at the three points are work, sleep, and social life? Senior year is when you lose the sleep aspect of it but you will not regret it,” she concluded.