After moving away from home and adjusting to the academic rigor of graduate school, getting involved on campus can seem like a bit much. However, it is a good way to begin establishing relationships outside of academics and interact with people of similar backgrounds! Below are some quick resources for getting involved on-campus!
Clubs and Activities
UCI offers a variety of organizations that range from sports, dance groups to religious study groups. For the most part, these organizations are student-led and have meetings at various times during the school year. It’s a great way to meet new people, learn about other cultures, and take a break from academics! The website below can be used to search for campus organizations.
Seminars
Each department at UCI offers speakers that come present their research weekly or monthly. It is a fun way to work your brain muscles and stay up to date on the latest findings in the U.S. and internationally. Most speakers brought to UCI have years of experience in their field, so you can ask your questions directly to the state of the art professionals. Bonus: you can network with people across universities that may be helpful with your line of research!
Performing Arts
The theatre on-campus hosts a variety of concerts from musicals, to ballet, and plays. The prices for these events vary, but most are graduate student-budget friendly. UCI also hosts Shakespeare plays during the summer outdoors for $15-$30 tickets per play. The calendar below has updated events occurring on-campus!
On-Campus Jobs
When trying to land an on-campus job, it is important to discuss it with your program department first to ensure it doesn’t affect your degree offer. An additional benefit of discussing with the department first is that sometimes professors will have open paid positions for research. An additional resource for finding on-campus jobs is an internal job search website, below.
http://career.uci.edu/students/undergraduate/find-an-internship/handshake/
Research
One of the first contacts for finding a research position is contacting your department directly. It helps that you researched and identified at least three professors, whom you are interested in working with. Ensure that you become familiar with their work and most recent publications. If the research is interesting, it’s always good to contact the professor to discuss it in-person over coffee or tea. This would not only allow you to meet the professor prior to committing to doing research, but it will also allow you to see if you are compatible with their personality. Sometimes this is difficult to see via e-mail, but it is important to consider the environment in the group, your compatibility with the professor as well as your interest in the research. This will take up the next 2-5 years of your life so don’t make this decision abruptly!
Don’t forget to take it slow and not try to do 100 things on-campus at once! It is also good to remember to evaluate if your life balance is where you’d like it to be or if it is not. Don’t be afraid to adjust your activities. Best of luck!
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Juana A. CernaHome Country: MexicoSchool of Biological Sciences
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