Students considering or preparing for graduate school may find some valuable — and perhaps entertaining — information at an upcoming event.
Donald Asher of Asher Associates will be presenting “Gaining Admission into Highly Competitive Graduate Programs” today at 4 p.m. in the UC Auditorium.
UT Career Services and the College of Engineering put the event together. Stephanie Kit, associate director at Career Services, said the event will be fast-paced and packed with information.
“(Asher) will talk basically a mile-a-minute for an hour and a half,” Kit said. “And he’ll cover different grad school admission topics and get audience feedback and participation as well.”
Asher has been to UT nearly 20 times now, discussing a range of topics including tips on how to apply to grad school, how to utilize your GPA even if it’s a lower score, what to look for when researching grad school and the importance of getting strong letters of recommendations.
And according to Kit, Asher’s presentations have always been a hit with students.
“He usually receives very high evaluations from students,” Kit said. “He’s not only informative, but he does it in a very entertaining and fun manner. He has a very good sense of humor. I don’t think students mind listening to him for that much time.”
The presentation will be given in two parts. The first is a general session, going from 4-5:30 p.m, which will provide information for students applying to a non-specific graduate school.
Later at 6 p.m., Asher will channel his focus on students majoring in a STEM discipline (science, technology, engineering and math). While some of the information between the two programs will overlap, the STEM-specific session will provide more information handy to those involved with STEM and looking for graduate schools more tailored to their disciplines, especially in regard to research.
Steven Stribling, senior in nuclear engineering, while not currently planning on going to graduate school, understands the importance of learning more about the process.
“It’s something to attend because grad school is competitive,” Stribling said. “I would ask how much emphasis we should put on finding a professor or a school that focuses on a subject that you enjoy. For me that would be power generation.”
Kit recommended that any student interested in graduate school should attend Asher’s presentation, even if they’re not moving on from their undergraduate program for several years.
“I don’t think students will be disappointed if they turn up,” Kit said. “I’ve seen students lined up to talk to Mr. Asher even at 5:30, and they’ve sat there for an hour-and-a-half, just to get more information.”
A video of one of Asher’s previous presentations at UT is available at the Career Service’s website. It can be found at career.utk.edu/graduate.
