Written by Amelia Haston ’19

I always knew that I wanted to get some kind of post-graduate degree, but when I came to BSC in 2015, I was unsure about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. Since my first year, I have received help and direction from the faculty and staff, as well as older students, to find my passion and the right graduate program.

Here’s a few tips I wish I had known as a first-year considering graduate school:

Use all the resources you have available. BSC has a high rate of placement in post-graduate degree programs, and I think that’s largely due to the overwhelming amount of resources. You might think the Career Center is just around to help people find jobs, but it also has a lot of resources relating to graduate school. The Career Center helped me tailor my resume for my law school applications so it focused on my research and writing skills.

Talk to professors who are experts in what interests you. My professors were critical in helping me make my decision. Dr. Mark Lester, who worked as an attorney for many years before coming to Birmingham-Southern, was especially helpful. He met with me many times over the course of my four years to talk about different law schools and how they could further my career goals.

Don’t be afraid to try new things. BSC provides students with unique opportunities to step out of their comfort zones. Most people do this through Exploration Term. Because of its flexibility, E-Term is a great time to study abroad if you aren’t able to do a semester-long or summer program. You could also use E-Term to take or prepare for tests like the GRE, LSAT, and MCAT.

Explore potential careers through work experience. Birmingham has a flourishing professional community, so there are lots of options for pre-professional internship placements. These internships are a great way to make connections with people in the fields that you’re interested in, and you get some real-life experience to find what you want to do for your career.

Be open to all of your options. Throughout my time at BSC, I think I probably changed my major five or six different times because classes in many different fields were so engaging. BSC’s Explorations Curriculum allows general education requirements to be flexible, so students take classes that they’re truly interested in rather than taking classes just to meet a graduation requirement. I benefitted from getting to explore all of my interests to the fullest extent.

Give yourself time to make a decision. Even during my senior year, I changed my mind a few times when I was trying to decide on going to law school, but in the end, I found that it’s the best path for me. Allowing myself to be open to new ideas helped me solidify my decision because I knew I had put myself out there in lots of different fields.

Amelia Haston ’19 graduated with a degree in history and began law school at Wake Forest in the fall.