By Alayna Johnson, 2018-2019 SCS Student Advising Leader:   Remember your nightmares about the ACT not so long ago? Get ready for them to come back and haunt you: it’s time for the GRE! The Graduate Record Examination, or the GRE, is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for most graduate schools in the United States. The exam is about four hours in length and offered at more than 1,000 testing centers globally (including one right here in Champaign!). The cost of the exam is $205 and you can take it up to five times each year. In the US, it is most often administered on...

By Alayna Johnson, 2018-2019 SCS Student Advising Leader: Research Experiences for Undergraduates, or REUs for short, are becoming more and more popular. In short, host universities across the country invite talented undergraduate students to conduct research on their campus for 8-10 weeks over the summer under the guidance of a professor or graduate student. I’ve participated in three REU programs and I’m excited to share why I think they’re the best way to gain summer research experience: Research sites are offered at a variety of locations, including prestigious research universities...

By Nick Kaufmann, 2018-2019 SCS Student Advising Leader: My journey to UIUC did not begin right after my senior year of high school. Before jumping onto a college of more than 40,000 students, I decided it was best for me to attend my local community college in Springfield, Illinois. I believed that a small school near home would allow me to determine what I really wanted to study and what I actually wanted to be. I eventually landed on chemical engineering as my area of study, and before I knew it my time at my community college was over and it was time to decide where I wanted to continue...

By Madeleine Chalifoux, ChBE Alumnus: Asking for a letter of recommendation can be intimidating. If you feel this way, you’re not alone! However, whether it is a professor, advisor, or boss, these people are here for you and want to see you succeed. So, don’t be too nervous to ask for a letter- these people are here for you! The purpose of recommendation letters is for potential employers, graduate schools, or scholarship committees to get a more holistic idea of you as an application and, most importantly, as a person. They are looking for a deeper insight into who you are, beyond the...

By Alayna Johnson, 2018-2019 SCS Student Advising Leader As an avid reddit user, I recently came across a post on r/AskReddit that asked “What is the hardest class you took in college?” The top answer? Organic chemistry, with 156 upvotes. The comments section is filled with other users adding their own organic horror stories, one even going so far as to say organic chemistry made them switch majors from chemistry to art! So what makes this course so challenging and how can you...

By Alayna Johnson, SCS Student Advising Leader 2018-2019:             What’s one thing all college students (and parents of college students) can agree on? School is expensive! Scholarships are arguably the best way to mitigate the price of tuition because you don’t have to pay them back and they boost your resumé. Let’s take a look on where to find competitive scholarship opportunities and how to put together an application.             When you apply to Illinois, you’re...

By Alayna Johnson, SCS Student Advising Leader 2018-2019: Scary? Easy? A waste of time? A way to get ahead? There’s lots of buzz about proficiency exams and it can be difficult to know what’s true. I’ve taken and passed three of these exams and am here to spill the beans! Illinois offers proficiency exams in integrative biology, molecular and cellular biology, computer science, economics, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, history, math, music, physics, psychology, and–of course–chemistry! The basic idea is pretty simple: you sit for an exam that covers the entirety of the course material (...

By Kamakshi Katwala, 2018-2019 SCS Student Advising Leader: Get Involved – Medical Service Trips There are many ways to spice up your resume as a pre-medical student for potential recruiters and for institutions for further education, and one of the best ways of doing this is by medical service trips. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to Managua, Nicaragua to work with other student volunteers and local physicians to provide free clinics in various small towns throughout Masachapa. We traveled between small towns throughout Nicaragua and over the course...

By Maddy Chalifoux, SCS Student Advising Leader 2018-19: As finals approach, students’ stress levels tend to rise. With all of the assignments due and exams to prepare for, it’s easy to neglect to do things such as exercise. However, exercising has consistently been proven to help cognitive function and focus. (If you’re interested, check out this article on the influence of exercise and cognitive abilities.) Despite the undeniable benefits of exercise, we often don’t get enough of it- especially in busy times such...

By Maddy Chalifoux, SCS Student Advising Leader 2018-19: Thanksgiving break is almost upon us, and we can now begin looking forward to spending quality time with family and friends, eating delicious food, and taking a week to relax away from the demands of school. However, students often have just as many (if not more!) assignments to complete over break, and plenty of tests to study for in the weeks immediately following the return to school. All too often, students push off projects, assignments, or studying to the long break thinking, “I’ll study over break- I’ll have plenty...