Skip to Main Content
Pathways to Science: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Search for a program . . . find your future.


Mentoring Manual




Beyond the placement: What's next?


Your placement experience can enhance distinct goals and plans or mark the beginning of a new academic pathway. Either way, as your placement draws to a close there are several important things you can do to make sure it fully serves next stages of your education or professional development. The mentors, faculty and administrators with whom you worked during the program have gotten to know you and are invested in your success, so don't miss the opportunity to let them help you progress. Hare are some suggestions for end of program follow-ups:

  • Schedule meetings with your mentor and faculty supervisor to discuss your academic and professional goals. Don't worry about how well developed you think those goals are - just use the focused time to get clarifying and validating your next steps.
  • Often, the academic outputs of a research placement include as many areas for future study as conclusions about the work done. Consider working with a mentor on defining follow-up work and creating a plan for continuing to pursue aspects of the field-work that most interests you.
  • Use what you learned during the placement to guide your research into graduate school programs. Talk to mentors, faculty and administrators about how the work you completed in the placement might connect to particular graduate programs, and request introductions to any personal connections they may have at graduate programs of interest to you, so that you can get more information directly from program participants.
  • Request future reference letters from faculty and mentors.


DOWNLOAD THE PDF


Download just the Undergrad section of the manual to share with peers and colleagues