Twenty-two schools took part in Lander University’s graduate school fair, held on Wednesday, Oct. 11, with recruiters coming from as far away as Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, and Antioch University, in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
“We’re thrilled to have all these recruiters for graduate programs here. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students,” said Dr. Boyd Yarbrough, vice president for Student Affairs.
“I think it’s great,” said Mary Stokes, admissions support coordinator for Pfeiffer University’s master’s program in occupational therapy. “The turnout today has been wonderful, and students have been engaged, asking questions.”
To Marisa Banke, admissions administrator for Charleston School of Law, students’ majors were of secondary importance.
“We just want them to be involved in undergrad, because that shows they’re going to be an involved student in law school and afterwards,” she said.
Lander offers 10 graduate school programs, and Graduate Admissions Counselor Kelsey Gibbons came to talk about them.
“We offer hybrid and online options. We are inexpensive and offer scholarships and graduate assistant positions,” she said.
Lander wants to help students even “if they want to go to graduate school somewhere else. We just want them to get the degree they want and be successful in their profession,” Gibbons said.
Wright Culpepper is director of Recruitment and Student Affairs for the Graduate School at the University of South Carolina. He has participated in Lander’s graduate school fairs for the past 10 years.
“Having come to Lander so many times, I hear about what the school does well.” He cited the partnerships that Lander has with Self Regional Healthcare as an example.
“Those types of things elevate the student experience,” he said.
Culpepper said that Lander students have usually “ironed out the ‘what do I want to do when I grow up’ kind of questions, and are usually “well prepared for what’s next.”