The Conference Center in the Arts and Humanities Building hosted the Career Development Center’s fifth annual Graduate School Weekend on Saturday Oct. 6. The event featured panel discussions with graduate school representatives and a graduate school fair for prospective students to explore over 30 attending programs.

The event began at 1:30 p.m. with a series of panel talks featuring representatives from the attending programs. The first discussion, led by the CDC’s Professional and Graduate School Advisor, Nicole Adoranti, was on the topic of statements for graduate school programs. Representatives from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, the Medical School for International Health at Ben Gurion University and Paris College of Art gave attending students advice on how to approach their statements.

A panel on letters of recommendation followed, led by the Assistant Director of the CDC, Garvin Reid. The talk was attended by members of Yale School of Management, the American University of the Caribbean and Georgetown University. Topics of discussion included who to ask for recommendation letters and what requirements apply to these letters.

The third and final talk centered around financial aid available for graduate programs and questions were answered by representatives from Hertie School of Governance and the University of California, Berkeley. The topic of financial aid and how it differs across a range of programs was discussed, along with the different levels of financial aid that are available to different applicants. Students were encouraged to ask questions during all of the aforementioned panels.

At 3:30 p.m., the Graduate Program Fair kicked off with 36 separate stations spread across the Conference Center for the attending programs. Students had the opportunity to speak to representatives from the different programs and collect program prospectuses as well as other merchandise, such as pins, notebooks and pens.

Some attending students used the opportunity to find out more about the application process. Ali Alshehhi, a Biomedical Engineer student at Khalifa University, saw the event as useful in that regard.

“I think [students] have to come so that they have a sense of what to expect and get a basic idea of applications. The panel discussion was more specific, the fair was not too specific,” said Alshehhi.

Others felt that the event covered the topic of graduate programs on a quite superficial level. Ghita Benhayoune, Class of 2020, believed the event did not provide much more information for her.

“I honestly feel more comfortable just talking to the Career Center. It’s more useful to have a personalized opinion with someone who already knows your case and is familiar with you and what you major in. It’s useful if you really, really don’t know where to go and what your options are,” said Benhayoune.

The CDC was content with the turnout of graduate school programs at the event.

“We are very satisfied with the number of schools who came and the quality of the programs that are being offered by those schools. We really hope that people come and use this opportunity because I feel that it will be very beneficial to our student body,” said Giulia Turchetti, Class of 2019, a Global Career Peer at the CDC who took part in the organizational process of the event.

Junior Garcia, Class of 2021, who is a Global Career Peer at the CDC, urged students to explore their options at the Graduate School Weekend.

“A lot of students came, the turnout was amazing, it really shows student interest in the CDC and what we do,” said Garcia. “We always encourage students to come to every single graduate school weekend because we have no guarantees that the schools that come this year will come next year. So we always try to have diversity in names that we bring and also the types of fields that those schools are offering for students. I’m pretty sure that any type of student from any type of background will find something they like.”