“So, what are you planning on doing after you graduate?” I, like the rest of the Class of 2013, am quite familiar with this commonly used conversation starter. I am faced with this question at least twice a week, and I’m sure that because we are about to enter the purgatory that younger students call “the summer,” I will be asked even more frequently. Thankfully, however, I now have an answer to this dreaded question. I will be attending American University in the fall for graduate school.
Like many of my comrades, I only finalized my plans for the future very recently. Before last summer, I had the idea that I would be at Wellesley forever. The future just seemed so far away and my first-year orientation felt like yesterday. My parents are both retired military officers who abruptly put my false sense of reality into check during the summer after my junior year. Three days after I submitted my last final exam and about a week after my 21st birthday, I found myself back at home in Cloudcroft, a mountain village in New Mexico. As I was eating breakfast the next morning, my dad brought me a stack of three LSAT and six GRE study guides and practice test books. He told me “Happy birthday! I hope you enjoy the gifts your mother and I bought you.” And that began the 10-week conversation which formulated the answer to the dreaded question of my post-graduation plans.
My parents continually reminded me that this wasn’t supposed to be a relaxing summer of catching up on Mad Men or watching old movies, but rather that it was “crunch time.” Since the LSAT was scheduled earlier in the summer than the GRE, I began with taking a practice LSAT test every other day. On the days I didn’t take a test, I focused on learning why I got certain questions wrong and reviewing my most challenging area (read: logic games). On the fateful morning of June 11th, I drove two hours to the University of Texas at El Paso to begin the marathon that is commonly referred to as “the LSAT”. Hours later, I hopped into the car with sore shoulders and a cramp in my hand and made the two hour trek back home.
When it was time to start studying for the GRE, I still wasn’t sure of what type of graduate school program I wanted to enter. My parents sat me down for the thousandth time that summer and asked: “What do you like doing, Catherine? What are your interests?” I thought for a moment and I realized that the only law I wanted to practice if I went to law school was criminal law. After explaining my passion and the classes I’ve taken about crime, my dad asked if I would be interested in getting a master’s degree in criminal justice and/or criminology. I absolutely loved the idea. In fact, I was so excited by the idea of going into a career in federal law enforcement that I abandoned my thoughts about law school. I figured if all I wanted to do is study criminal law, why would I go to law school for three years to learn mostly about law that didn’t interest me?
I took the GRE on August 20th; I received my multiple choice scores immediately after submitting the exam and was very pleased with the fruition of my hard work. Ultimately, I decided on applying to nine graduate schools and one law school, just to keep my options open. After my summer of “boot camp” where I took two major standardized tests, hiked three times a week, and read thirteen novels, I felt as though I was ready to take on my senior year. I was right. Senior fall semester had proven to be my most successful semester yet here at Wellesley. And, since submitting all of my applications in November, I have gotten into eight of the nine schools I applied to, and am still waiting to hear from one. I transformed from being a victim of “senioritis” into being someone who has a solid plan for the future. I may not have been able to spend last summer on the beach or at a super exciting internship, but I did manage to have a good time with my family while finding my focus.
– Catherine Vatikiotis ‘13