The Business Club hosted Graduate School Night on Nov. 7 in the Mercy Heritage Room.Graduate School Night was meant to introduce graduate programs for students if interested in continuing their education after their undergraduate studies.There were supposed to be 10 schools in attendance including Mercyhurst.

Those schools included Clarkson University, Duquesne University, Niagara University, Penn State Behrend, Robert Morris University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, University of Buffalo, University of Pittsburgh, and Mercyhurst. All of which are located in neighboring areas; however, University of Pittsburgh was not able to attend.

For weeks, every student on campus saw fliers and received emails inviting them to the event. The presentation encouraged students of all majors and all ages to attend. The fliers said, “It’s never too early to start thinking about graduate school.” That statement is true. As a sophomore I was very excited to attend the presentation and start planning my future, as were other students.

As a hospitality student, I only slightly benefitted. Not many of the schools that were in attendance mentioned any kind of further degrees in hospitality.
That’s ok. I have considered a master’s degree in business and that would work well for my area of study and career path. However, that’s not the case for students who study biology, archaeology, psychology, or any other major than a business major, offered on this campus for that matter. I was surprised to see the Mercy Heritage Room so full upon my arrival. There were people without seats…at first.

After the first speaker, almost half of the room got up to leave. I’m sure this was disappointing to the Business Club members as well as the representatives. As more speakers presented, more students left. I stayed at the presentation in case there turned out to be any hospitality opportunities and I was also interested in what the different schools had to offer.After talking to students that ended up leaving, they were disappointed that there was so much hype for them to attend but then were not able to get anything out of it.
Graduate School Night is a great idea. I commend the Business Club and Walker School of Business staff on their effort and success among business students that night.

A good thing about those who stayed, business student or not, is that they were introduced to schools they may not have known about and gained knowledge of them.The problem is that they invited all students and only business students really benefitted and attendance was not as high as they probably hoped. The schools that presented were very enthusiastic about their programs and did not hesitate to answer any question thrown at them. There were a lot of papers and pamphlets to read and some schools gave freebies such as coasters and water bottles, and who doesn’t like freebies?

Overall, for those who actually benefitted, the night was successful and the business club should be proud. For those who did not benefit, Mercyhurst and the Career Development Center should offer another “graduate school night” more similar to the Clubs and Organizations Fair or Career Fair, where there is more opportunity for all students.