NDSU to Hold Graduate School Fair

The NDSU Graduate School is putting on a Grad School Fair to help students decide what program is best for them, how to apply, how to fund grad school and more.

The Grad School Fair will feature booths and presentations on different aspects of the graduate school and its programs.

David Wittrock, dean of the graduate school, described that graduate school is a good way to explore and learn about a subject more in depth, but that students need to have a good idea of what they want to do in the future before applying.

Wittrock said that one way to pay for graduate school is to do an assistantship in the program. Teaching, research and service assistantships are available. Some programs have more of one type of assistantship available than others.

Assistantships are similar to a job; students are required to work about 20 hours per week and get paid in addition to receiving a tuition waiver.

More advanced teaching assistantships are offered farther along in the degree programs and involve the chance to teach sections of classes. Wittrock said that this is very useful in becoming a professor or instructor at a university.

Wittrock said that a number of different programs are moving towards requiring education after college, especially science programs. These programs do not only teach their subject, but also focus on communication skills that will be important in the workplace.

“The number of students that are getting bachelor’s degrees are increasing all the time, and so business and industry is looking for something that shows that somebody has a set of skills that are better than the other people in the pool,” Wittrock said.

While graduate school is becoming more prevalent, Wittrock said that it may not be the right path for every student.

“It’s not for everybody,” he said.

However, the Grad School Fair can be beneficial even for students interested in going to graduate school later down the road, Wittrock said.

Goergen, public relations for NDSU graduate school, said that waiting to go to graduate school can be beneficial because it gives the student real-world experiences to base their classroom discussions on.

Even if a student is interested in attending graduate school somewhere other than NDSU, Goergen and Wittrock still encourage them to visit the fair, because all graduate school applications are similar.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the Memorial Union Great Room.

For more information about the grad school fair, visit http://www.ndsu.edu/news/view/article/15528/.