Career Planning for A&S Students

Guide for Arts & Sciences Students

Career planning is important at every stage of your college career.  Early career planning will allow you to select a major or minor relevant to your field of interest, polish your resume to get that summer job or internship, or prepare you for the graduate school or job search process.  We encourage you to discuss your career interests with your adviser, faculty, staff, alumni, career counselors, or someone working in the field you want to explore.

Career Exploration

Please use the professional resources on the right or the links below to explore possible careers.  You may also wish to talk to your adviser, faculty in your department, or make an appointment with a career counselor.

• What can I do with a major in? (START HERE)
  
• Academic Exploration Resources
• Occupational Outlook Handbook
• Career Development Resources

Set Goals & Develop Your Experience

Set Career Goals (be flexible)

• What are your personal and professional goals?
• What do you need to do to achieve those goals?
  
• Remember to be flexible with your goals
  
  • You may discover a new field you have never heard of before college.
  • If you struggle in your chosen field, don't be afraid to try a different one

Gain Experience Relevant to Your Goals

• What experiences may be relevant to your goals?
  
  • Do you need a certain major, minor, graduate degree?
  • Do you need to gain certain experiences to achieve your goal?
  • Do you need to earn a certain GPA requirement to get into graduate school?
• Internships & Co-ops
  • Cooperative Education
• Research, Labwork, and Presentations
• Volunteer to gain related experience.
  
  • Community Organizations
  • Clubs & Activities
  • Learn & Serve

Gain Career Skills

Career Development can help you develop your career skills so that you are prepared to apply for internships, jobs, and graduate schools:

• Resume writing
• Cover letters
• References
  
  • Always ask your references, before listing them on your resume.
  • Log into FERPA on myNU (Alumni click here) to to grant them permission to discuss your record.
  • Talk to your references or give them a copy of your resume so they know more about you.
• Credential files
• Interview skills
• How to request an official transcript

Job Search Resources

• Searching for Jobs
• On Campus Interviews

Graduate School Resources

Preparing for Graduate Exams

• Find out more about required exams (GRE, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, Miller's Analogy Test...)
• Niagara offers some testing on-campus
• Niagara periodically offers practice tests on-campus offered by Kaplan

Niagara's Graduate Programs

• Take graduate courses as an undegraduate student if you qualify
  
  • 5 Year BS/MS program in Criminal Justice (up to 3 graduate courses)
  • Seniors with a 3.0+ GPA can take up to 2 extra graduate courses
• Ask About prerequisite courses
  
  • MBA prerequisite courses can speed up your degree completion
  • Education requires a language/ASL course
  • Secondary Education requires 36 credit hours in content areas
• Niagara's Graduate Programs
  • Criminal Justice Administration
  • Interdisciplinary Studies
  • MBA - Business Administration
  • Education
  • Counseling

Exploring Other Graduate Programs

• Things to consider when applying to graduate programs
  
  • Prerequisite courses, majors, minors, experiences
  • GPA requirements
  • Exams required
  • Recommendations & cover letters
  • Deadlines (yearly deadline or rolling admission)
  • Cost (some fields and PhD programs have assistanships, grants, etc...)
• Searching for graduate programs
  
  • Career Development Office Resources
  • External Resources