My Time Has Come

For three years now I have gone through my academic career as a Cell and Molecular Biology student, and it has been a great ride. The connections, relationships and experiences I have had make me happy I chose this major! However, the end is coming near for me. This is the time when seniors must make a big decision about what comes next. In my case, I am applying to graduate school to enter a Genetic Counseling program.

Senior Year: Part 2

This time of my life is like redoing my senior year of high school when I had to choose a university for my undergrad years! I am deciding where I will go, sending transcripts and planning to fill out applications. Although stressful, it has been a fun time. In this blog post, I want to share what this process is like right now and in the future hopefully I can share the end result!

The Big Decision

I am going into Genetic Counseling, a medical genetics-based job that includes working one-on-one with patients to help them determine risk and causes of genetic diseases. My first big choice is the school. This will be based on where I would like to live during the two-year program, what kind of clinical rotations are available, specific focuses in coursework (bioethics, prenatal, research) and how much I like the university in general. All these factors must be taken into account so that I, or any other student, end up at a school that fits my style, career goals and personal preferences for emphasis. Determining all these things about a graduate school requires a lot of online research into the programs’ admissions requirements, coursework and physical locations/cities and emailing staff at the university with questions.

Every Good Paper Has Sources and References

Like any good paper, a student who wants to enter graduate school must have sources and references to back them up. For graduate school, these “sources” include CVs/resumes, transcripts and personal statements:  anything that gives the school’s admissions some information about who you are. “References” for a student are letters of recommendation, which allow admissions to get a view of who you are from an outside source (another person). These two things are very important to an application because the graduate schools need to get an idea of how you perform, what you have done, why you deserve to attend and how you display yourself to those around you.

The Present and Future

So, right now I am in the process of finding out where I will go and getting together all of these documents and letters to set up my process. For anyone who is considering graduate school, I want you to know that, even though it is a scary process, it will pay off. Later this year, once I have done my applications and interviews, I plan to come back and share with you all what the journey was like. As always, thank you for reading!

(Bio: My name Is Michael Rexroad, a transfer student from Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City. I am a senior currently studying cell and molecular biology with a minor in chemistry.)