Tracing Lives, Slavery to Today
Maryland's Hampton Plantation

Symposium at Towson University.
Friday and Saturday, October 26-27

This event is free and open to the public!
See website and attachments for details and agenda.

The prospect of graduate or professional school is an exciting one!

As you begin the process of exploring programs of interest, and preparing to submit applications, here are three main points to keep in mind:

Take time to find the right program fit!

When possible, visit the schools/programs that interest you. You’ll have the opportunity to see how the campus is laid out and learn about the surrounding area. Is it in close proximity to things you enjoy? What are the housing options like? What do the labs, studios and/or classroom facilities that you would be learning in look like? Overall, does it seem like the type of environment you will like to spend time in?

You’ll also have the chance to connect with program directors, faculty and current graduate students. You’ll want to consider whether or not the program has a professor who shares your research areas of interest. And meeting current students is especially important if your program will use a “cohort” model – meaning you will work with the same people throughout the duration of the program.

Finally, take time to research class options – some programs will provide more flexible schedule options include evening, weekend or online classes, while other programs may be more traditional and have classes throughout the day.

Graduate programs might require an entrance exam

The majority of graduate and professional programs will require you to complete an entrance exam, similar to taking the SAT or ACT when applying to UMBC. See below for what exam you might be expected to take:

• Dental School: DAT (Dental Admission Test) 
• Business and Management Schools: GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) 
• Master’s and Doctoral Programs: GRE (Graduate Record Examination) *Most common graduate admissions exam* 
• Law School: LSAT (Law School Admission Test) 
• Medical School: MCAT (Medical College Admission Test)
• Pharmacy School: PCAT (Pharmacy College Admission Test) 

Letters of Recommendation – ask early and ask people who know you best!

Most applications to graduate or professional school will require you to submit letters of recommendation. Your recommenders should be individuals who know you well, such as a professor who taught you in several courses or serves as your research mentor.

Ideally, you’ll set up a meeting to ask for a recommendation face-to-face, which will help emphasize how important the letter is to you and give you the chance to provide context answer questions your prospective recommender might have.

Allow at least two months prior to the deadline to give your recommenders enough time to complete the recommendation.

See below for some other helpful links as you continue to prepare for your next steps!

The Graduate School at UMBC 

Applying to Graduate Schools via UMBC Career Center

Written by OAPA Peer Advisor, Malaysia McGinnis, Class of ‘19.

The common stereotype of a middle child is exemplified in the sophomore year of college. It is the year where the school, the people, the academic life no longer feel new, but it is not quite old. The classes become a steady slew of assignments, studying, and cramming. This overwhelming feeling often gives rise to the “Sophomore Slump.” During this period, a lack of motivation, boredom, and anxiety about the future (and present) are at their peak.

Socially, the friends you made in the first year of college may no longer be the people you click with, or they are not the people you want to be around.

But recognize that there is nothing wrong with needing a different circle of people to feel right at home. Your group of friends can make or break your college experience, and it is important to keep friends that you feel comfortable and positive with around you.

With so many vibrant organizations on campus, you can try to meet new people, and gain some new experiences to shift your life’s perspective.

Additionally, as there is a general perception that you should make friends and connections to people “higher” than you (in terms of success, social prowess, etc.); it is also beneficial to make friends “across” from you. The lateral relationships you develop in college can result in a stronger mutual uplift.

Academically, you may realize your major is just not what you want, or you simply grow tired of learning the same subject. You may realize that you may not be in the right field, and you want to go through a complete revolution in your academic career.

This is okay. Take time to explore, and utilize any time you have outside of class to gain insight about what you want to do, including meeting with your academic advisor. Even if you are in the right field, maybe the 18 credits you took this fall in the same subject was just too much? UMBC is a liberal arts university, so you can balance out the GEP courses throughout your career to take classes that add a bit of diversity to your course load.

Sometimes it may seem as if everyone around you has it all figured out and are throttling into their success quicker. A word of advice: in college, no one has it 100% figured out. The journey to success and self-assurance is ever changing. So for those who feel late in finding out who they are, sophomore year is a great opportunity for growth.

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The UMBC Women’s Center has planned this year’s Critical Social Justice Week (CSJ) around the core idea that “a single light can’t illuminate a city or a nation, but it can ignite a movement that changes the world.”

CSJ: Ignite takes place October 22 – 26, 2018. The week’s programs have been designed both to tap into the passion people already feel for issues that matter to them and to provide pathways for people who haven’t been engaged in traditional forms of activism to see opportunities to have an impact.

“It’s about being able to share your strengths and skills for activism and social change, and being able to share the message with others,” says Jess Myers, director of UMBC’s Women’s Center.

Building connections, finding a niche

Now in its sixth year, CSJ continues to focus on broad themes of inclusion, equity, engagement, and community. This year’s events will also focus on building new connections and empowering people to explore new ways to do social justice work, whatever that looks like for them.

“It’s really about helping people feel comfortable doing activism and finding their own niche,” says Amelia Meman ’15, UMBC Women’s Center coordinator.

This year’s keynote speaker is Deanna Zandt, a media and technology expert, who will present her talk on Tuesday, October 23, 6:30 – 9 p.m. in Fine Arts 118. Zandt will focus on “how technology can move social justice forward, and what our roles may be in that effort.”

In response to the current campus conversation about sexual assault response and prevention, Myers says, Zandt will also explore what the university community “can do as a whole to make UMBC better.” Additionally, an introductory panel will precede her talk, featuring alumnae Yoo-Jin Kang ‘15, interdisciplinary studies, and Susie Hinz ‘14, gender and women’s studies, speaking about survivor activism.

Events for all

The technology focus of this year’s keynote reflects a goal of CSJ organizers to engage new participants, including more students in STEM programs. To move this vision forward, the Center for Women in Technology has joined CSJ as a core partner this year, and has planned the workshop “Women in Engineering and Igniting Change,” for Friday, October 26, 12 – 1 p.m. in ITE 456.

The Graduate Student Association (GSA) provided insight on programming that would be useful and engaging for graduate students, including a new graduate student panel scheduled for Thursday, October 25, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. in ITE 456. GSA Vice President Adam Harvey, a physics Ph.D. student, will participate in a discussion on the interconnections of activism and research, and how graduate students whose research doesn’t connect with activism can also work toward “social change or supporting the campus community,” Myers explains.

Additional CSJ events include a Community Art Project (October 23, 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., Academic Row), Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon (October 24, 3 – 5:30 p.m., Library 259), and knowledge exchange on social media and elections (October 25, 4 – 5 p.m., Women’s Center). Faculty and staff can attend a training session on Disability as Diversity on the Job (October 23, noon – 1 p.m., Engineering 023), and a staff panel on October 25 will explore activism in the workplace (1 – 2 p.m., ITE 456). Kate Drabinski, senior lecturer in gender and women’s studies, will also reprise her popular CSJ Walking Tour on October 26 (meeting in the Women’s Center at noon).

Myers encourages all UMBC community members to view the full CSJ schedule for information on the events of most interest to them. “What I’m hoping is our participants will realize that their work does matter,” regardless of what issue they are focusing on or how they are approaching it, says Myers. “Our events are accessible for everyone, including those who are just beginning this journey.”

Featured image: UMBC students, faculty, and staff participate in group discussions during a CSJ 2017 workshop. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Tara S. Carpenter, Senior Lecturer and General Chemistry Coordinator, 
and Gabriella Balaa, Assistant researcher, UMBC

On Oct. 23, between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m., chemists celebrate Mole Day. Mole Day is not a day to celebrate those furry little creatures that live in the ground. Rather, it is a day to celebrate a very important idea in the sub-microscopic world.

In chemistry, the mole is a unit used to talk about atoms. It is similar to other units we use everyday. For example, you might walk into the local doughnut shop and order a dozen doughnuts. In doing so, you know that you will get 12 of these snacks and the clerk knows to give you 12. The dozen unit is simply for convenience in discussing a quantity.

We apply the same idea to discuss quantities of atoms. Why do we not simply talk about dozens of atoms? The reason is because atoms are so small that it doesn’t make sense to do so. Imagine a single grain of table salt. That tiny crystal contains over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one quintillion) atoms. Rather than discussing such a large number of atoms, we can talk more conveniently through the mole unit. A mole of something contains 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 6.02 x 10²³ of that thing.

So rather than talking about over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in the grain of salt, we can express the quantity as around 0.000002 moles of atoms, which is much more convenient.

The number 6.02 x 10²³ is also called Avogadro’s number. Amedeo Avogadro was an Italian physicist. In 1811, he proposed that equal volumes of any gas at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of atoms (or molecules). The number is named after him to honor his work. Because Oct. 23 is abbreviated as 10/23, chemists use this date to celebrate Mole Day.

How much space does a mole occupy?

Now just how many is 6.02 x 10²³? How long do you think it would take you to count to a mole? One day? One week? One year? Go ahead, start counting. It would take you around 20,000,000,000,000,000 years. As you can see, very large quantities of atoms take up very little space which gives us an idea of just how tiny they are. Here is another example: One mole of water with all 6.02 x 10²³ molecules of H₂O occupies slightly more than a tablespoon.

So how do those tiny atoms come together to make up the stuff in the world around us? Even though atoms are so small, there is a lot of action going on. Each atom is made up of even smaller particles called electrons. The way those electrons place themselves around the atom lead to properties we can experience and observe. In a metal, the tiny atoms are swimming in a sea of electrons which gives them the ability to conduct heat and electricity.

How about water? The electrons in a molecule of water are arranged so that each water molecule is extremely attracted to the one next to it. Because of this they naturally arrange themselves at the atomic level in ways that have big consequences in the world around us. When water freezes, the molecules arrange in a way that creates a lattice that causes ice to float in liquid water. Why is that so important? Because ice floats, a pond or lake will freeze at the top, but below the entire aquatic ecosystem is able to survive. This is an amazing phenomenon of water.

Small atoms with big consequences

Many other substances adopt their own unique properties due to arrangement of electrons. The propane gas that we use to fuel a gas grill is a gas at room temperature because the molecules are weakly attracted to each other. Unlike water, they don’t really want to be next to each other at all. Consequently, the space between them results in a gaseous state.

Another important gas is oxygen. We need oxygen to live out our lives. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. As you do that, the molecules are whizzing through your nose, into your lungs where about 0.001 moles of oxygen are absorbed into your blood. Those molecules are responsible for helping each cell in your body produce energy so that your eyes can see the words on this page and your brain can think about what they mean, all while keeping your heart beating.

So, if you ever feel like you’re too insignificant to make a difference, just remember that even the smallest of things matter in the grand scheme of things.

Happy Mole Day!

* * * * *

Tara S. Carpenter, Senior Lecturer and General Chemistry Coordinator, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Gabriella Balaa, Assistant researcher, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.