Life after graduation

The closing of another semester can mean one of two things: another semester complete with more to go or the last (or second to last) semester of your college career.

For seniors at the University of Maryland, the end of this semester is the end of their time at this school and the start of another chapter in their lives.

“I’m elated,” senior counterterrorism major Sarah Hiltz said. “It’s my last year here but now I’m kind of like what do I do now because I really don’t think I’ll get a job right away.”

For Hiltz, mixed emotions come with graduating next semester, spring 2013. There’s the sense of being done with a part of your life but then there’s that looming damper of a cloud that is the real world approaching, Hiltz says. That cloud for her is getting a job because these days a college degree is not a guaranteed job.

Not all seniors are looking to secure a job right after they graduate. Cate Bee, senior undecided major, plans to take a year off and hopefully attend graduate school fall 2014.

Even her year off is still up for debate. She talks of getting a teaching assistantship job in France through the French government, teaching ski lessons in Canada or just getting a “boring” job to pass the time until she attends graduate school. As an undecided major, she feels graduate school will help her figure out what career she wants.

“I wish I had known which major was right for me sooner but otherwise, I did everything I wanted to do,” Bee said.

Senior and kinesiology-pre-occupational therapy major Anna Zinkgraf is set to graduate this semester and also wants to go to graduate school.

“Next semester I will be living at home while working and volunteering, but I plan to go to grad school for occupational therapy in the fall right after that,” Zinkgraf said.

Zinkgraf only has about two and a half weeks left of school but she is still very nervous, graduating is a big accomplishment that can be daunting.

“I didn’t really see it as an accomplishment when all my older friends were graduating because every adult I know has a bachelor’s degree, but when it’s you it’s different,” Hiltz said. “It feels like you’ve done something.”