On February 29th, the Professional Development Anthropology class visited ECU’s Graduate School. Our hosts were Dean Paul Gemperline and Graduate School Admission Director Robin Armstrong. We met in the conference and they shared with the class indepth significant information on many issues related to graduate education and getting into graduate school at ECU.
Dean Gemperline shared information on the benefits of graduate education and highlighted the various strategies in getting into a graduate program. He talked about how students can finance their graduate education as well as once the student achieve their graduate degree, more opportunities will become available for the individual graduate student.
After Dean Gemperline’s discussion, Robin Armstrong shared with the class all the major steps involved in getting into graduate school at ECU. She emphasized that students should present themselves in very professional and focused way when applying to a graduate program. Every graduate program are looking for certain type of excellent students and students that best fit their programs. Overall, Robin said that students should do their initial research of each graduate program that they’re interested in and find the best “fit” not only with the coursework but also the faculty in the graduate program.
Throughout Robin’s and Dean Gemperline’s discussions, Molly, Jacquelyn, and Jesse asked a number of detailed and investigative questions. I believe the answers to their questions truly helped to dispel many misconceptions about graduate education and also provided clarity to the process of getting into graduate school.
Overall, our class visit to the Graduate School was an insightful, informative and enriching experience that I’m sure my class appreciated. We truly appreciated the extra time that Robin and Dean Gemperline shared with us.