Accepted Student Luncheon (as a Current Student)

Posted April 23, 2019 by Maria Reilova

March/April is such a busy time at the admissions office at SLIS, where I work part-time, and just a few weekends ago, we had the Accepted Student Lunch on our Boston Campus for everyone admitted into SLIS for the Fall. I attended to participate on the student panel, help out with the concentration breakout sessions, give one of the largest tours I’ve done so far, and most importantly enjoy a delicious free lunch chatting with future students in the program.

What I really liked about being able to participate in this event, is that I actually attended the Accepted Student Lunch last Spring before I was a student, and it was certainly a valuable experience for me as someone who had never been to campus before and was still a little hesitant about moving so far from home (and the sunshine). I remember being the first to arrive at my table and being super nervous about almost everything. Luckily, a few of the other people at my table were interested in the same concentration as me so we had that as an ice breaker and we had both a current student and faculty member at my table who were both very engaging and well-informed.

Choosing to go to graduate school was a whirlwind decision for me. I would flip flop from thinking I never want to go back to school to I miss school and I have to go back sometime. Meeting other people at events like the accepted student luncheon really helped me not feel alone in this huge life decision and meeting and hearing from faculty, alumni, and current students was one of the most helpful factors in making my decision. I remember being intimidated by how smart and so put together everyone was but I do remember there was one student on the panel who was so honest and blunt about how she struggled at first and had to take her time in the program and she knew she couldn’t work full-time, do an internship, and graduate in 2 years like some of the other people who spoke about their experience. Hearing from her really put me at ease and let me know that, yes this is a huge commitment but if you really want it you can make it work! And I am so glad that I did because grad school has been so much better than I could have imagined, yes it is hard, yes it is stressful, but when you really love what you are learning about it makes it all worth it.