Tash Mahnokaren

Staff Writer

Idaho State University through its various departments organizes a variety of events throughout the year. These events are tailored to help students attain a fulfilling personal and educational experience in college.

Included in this collection of events are the Graduate Programs and Health Professions Fair on Friday, Oct. 10 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Majors and Minors Fair on Wednesday, Oct. 15 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Both will be held in the Pond Student Union Building Ballroom.

The fairs are designed to help students overcome obstacles and guide them on the right path to graduating on time and in their desired major.

Involvement beyond the classroom setting can be a promising way to nurture the passion for a student in a particular major or field of study.

Getting involved with the department through joining affiliated student groups or participating in research and internship programs can help students gain valuable experience for the work field and add to the marketability of their resume.

“Students should get to know the faculty and what some of the things are that faculty members are researching,” said Nancy Goodman, adviser for Central Academic Advising. “Last year we had about 52 departments there.”

Students attending the majors and minors fair are not required to bring anything other than questions to the event.

Goodman suggests looking through the graduate catalog to see what majors and minors are available and to bring questions relating to this. Math and general education requirements tend to vary between majors.

For freshmen, knowing how to double-count courses can better facilitate their course selection process.

“The sooner you declare your major, the more likely you are to graduate in a timely manner,” said Goodman.

At ISU, there are three different methods to admission into a major and these vary between departments.

According to Goodman, the first level consists of approaching a department’s receptionist to declare your major after which a form will be filled out and sent to the office of the registrar.

The second level of admission requires that certain prerequisites be fulfilled and a certain GPA obtained before admittance into the major.

The third method of admission refers to competitive entry programs such as nursing, radiographic sciences and dental hygiene. These often require a combination of prerequisite courses and are competitive entry.

“Not every pre-nursing major is going to necessarily become a nursing major,” said Goodman.

The fair allows for students to also learn about the other options available in case they are not admitted into the program of their choice. In this scenario, knowledge about other options can be beneficial for the transitioning process.

“We invited a number of programs that we have here on campus to participate, then expanded out from there and included a number of other graduate schools to come to talk to students. The health professions schools have regularly come [also],” said Pre-Health Adviser Becky Connell.

Getting graduate and health profession school representatives to come to the event held at ISU provides a realistic option base for students looking to advance their education.

“We have good representation from all the different colleges,” said Scott Lindenberg, who acts as an assistant to Connell. “We have a lot of the health profession school representatives attending from the physician’s assistant and the physical and occupational therapy programs as well as the liberal arts and education programs.”

The Graduate Programs and Health Professions Fair is an opportunity for students to have a better representation of the available graduate programs and if a career in the health professions field suits them.

“For health programs across the board, if there is a clinical component, they are competitive,” said Connell. “This fair gives students an opportunity to really educate themselves about the programs and see what other avenues they have to use the training they have obtained in their various degrees.”

This fair is not designed only for graduating students but for students of all levels in informing them about the various programs available to them.

“They can use this information to then go back and talk with their advisors to map out what they are doing down the road,” said Connell.

“The students that I have talked to have really gained a lot of good information and it has helped them as they have completed their applications or gone on to plan their next semester,” she added. “They have a clear idea of what they are going into or have changed their minds after learning about other programs.”