Things I Didn't know...

In my mad search for wanting to travel/work/study abroad, I finally checked out some of the CDC resources...and I was pretty taken aback at some of their guides. For people like me interested in the envrionment and biotechnology, there are career guides listing types of jobs and locations and companies. There's even quite a large guide called "Living and Working Overseas". For some people I know who are looking to travel as well, there are smaller guides on volunteer programs that are an alternative to peace corps, which may be not exactly what will make you find your way, but would be a wonderful starting point. I've actually talked to a lot of international people who would like to be working for companies from their country but in the US, and there is rather large directory of such foreign firms in the US as well.

When it comes to finding jobs outside the country, it's difficult at a school like WPI, where most engineering majors tend to stay pretty local after graduation. It's also difficult for life science majors, where Boston seems to be the meccah of biotechnology and bioengineering. Many other options exist for me though- even within the US, if that's what it comes down to. And that is good to know. If I want to travel, I recently found out that San Diego is also a big bio-science hub, so California (which, let's face it, might as well be a whole new country) is definitely an option.

But as far as living and traveling and working abroad goes, it's great to have a good starting point. Luckily life science majors have some time before they can start job hunting, and hopefully that time will give me the leverage I need to get where I want.

Remember how I said I started writing a few weeks ago? that's all I got so far....I don't know why I have no time to do this. On the other hand, I keep meeting people who have written like ten personal statements already and are almost all set with their applications...whatever will I do...


But I did find out today that the CDC can even evaluate your personal statement- I definitely did not know that. I mean, I'm going to have them check out my resumes and things before I include material from that into my applications, but I certainly didn't think they would read my essays too...that's great news. Because I'm going to need a ton of feed back!

It seems like since applications for grad school are due for most US schools, people are scrambling to get theirs done. Good thing I have some time...things to do this week are:
-Finish writing personal statement (FOR REAL!)
-Ask Registrar's office for multiple copies of transcript
-Reminder emails to professors I asked for recommendations (believe me, professors are worse than students and more often than not also wait until the last minute to get papers in on time...especially busy ones, like the ones doing biology research...)
-Make appointment with counselor as soon as I finish personal statement for advice and feedback

Yay! Maybe setting goals will get the ball rolling for me :)