For those knee-deep in schoolwork, it may be hard to look past the hardbound textbooks and looming fall midterms. But for those expecting to attend graduate school, prepping as early as possible is key, said Joe Castillo, a third year law student at UC Davis.

Castillo, a Sac State alumnus and product of the Criminal Justice department, talked about his years in law school during the Graduate Information Day on Sept. 21.

A special information day in December will host Sac State graduate programs for students who aim to stay local. Suzanne Gerbasi, McNair Scholars Program and Graduate Diversity Program coordinator at Sac State, said that the 2005 Annual Graduate Information Day held Sept. 21 was smaller than in past years because Sac State graduate programs will attend a separate event.

“Take classes here seriously, start pushing your limits as soon as possible and start talking to professors about law school,” is Castillo’s advice for Sac State students interested in getting into a competitive law program.

The multicolored tables advertising colleges and universities from around the nation were camped along the library quad grass and offered many opportunities for students to gain knowledge. Representatives from state schools, private schools and professional schools were all present at the Graduate Information Day.

The UC Davis School of Law table represented one graduate institution out of the 71 present.

“I’m hoping this event provides a mechanism for students, who want to go to graduate schools, to obtain information and have information at their fingertips,” Gerbasi said.

Larger, more well-known universities were interwoven with smaller colleges that offered more focused fields of study. One such smaller institution was Mills College, which was aimed at a specific student audience.

Roia Ferrazares, MBA program coordinator at Mills College in Oakland, expressed the uniqueness of Mills’ Graduate School of Business. “Our goal is to increase to the number of women getting MBAs,” Ferrazares said. Female students make up 98 percent of the student body at Mills College. The school is not closed to men, but the learning style is more conducive to women, Ferrazares said.

Jenn Todd, a junior majoring in biology, said she was surprised by the event, but took advantage of the opportunity to check out different medical schools. Todd said she either wants to attend medical school in California or hop a plane and go to a school on the East Coast.

The UC Berkeley table attracted a swarm of students for the better half of the day. Heather Zenone, involved in the Graduate Diversity Program and Graduate Outreach at Cal, helped direct students to the right program out of over a 100 that are offered on the campus. Cal offers everything accept for medical, Zenone said.

Zenone emphasized the differences between UC and CSU campuses; CSUs are more professional and offer more masters degrees whereas UCs are more focused on research and offer more Ph.D.s. Zenone said that students find what emphasis suits their needs and then start applying.

“We want to encourage people and we want to provide a world of opportunities,” Zenone said.

All tables were open to student questions and aimed to increase graduate school knowledge among the student population.

Tony Nguyen, a business major at Sac State, was avidly picking up fliers for a friend who will be applying for law school soon. Nguyen said extra information would help because his friend wants to look at lots of options before deciding.

Zenone’s advice to students interested in graduate school at Cal and beyond is: “check the Web site and get good grades.”

For students interested in more graduate school information, a graduate forum is Oct. 29 at Sac State. The forum is a consortium of CSU and UC schools and is offered by invitation-only.

Applications are due Oct. 14 at the Graduate Diversity Office.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]