We were joined at our weekly brownbag lunch today by Dr. Marcela Hernandez of the Life Sciences Network (check out their website).  Marcela completed her undergraduate, masters, and PhD at Ohio State, and had some very useful insight into doing a PhD in the life sciences.

Marcela did her undergrad degree in Molecular Genetics, and then joined the Ohio State Biochemistry Program for her PhD.  After her lab rotations, she ended up joining a very big, well-funded microbiology lab.  When talking to us about her experience in this lab, Marcela really emphasized the importance of your fit with that lab’s atmosphere and the PI; if you don’t feel like that lab is the right place for you, she said that you shouldn’t be there.  Right before taking her candidacy exams, Marcela said she really didn’t feel like that microbiology lab was the right place for her and there wasn’t a lot of interaction between graduate students and the PI, so she ended up taking her master’s degree and leaving the program.

After leaving graduate school, Marcela got a job as a lab technician with Dr. Erich Grotewold here at OSU.   She told us that her experience in this lab was much different than her time in the microbiology lab.  She had a lot more interaction and a much better relationship with the PI than in her previous lab; this was a much better fit for her.  After some time working at a technician and publishing with the lab, Dr. Grotewold suggested she rejoin the OSBP and finish her PhD in his lab.  She was ultimately able to re-enter the program and finished her PhD in Dr. Grotewold’s lab.

Marcela discussed in depth how important the fit of the lab is to your success in the program.  Even if it is a renowned PI and they have great funding, if it is not an atmosphere that is conducive to your personal  and academic learning, you are not going to find success in that program.  She emphasized how important it is to evaluate labs and PIs during rotations (for life sciences) and make a determination of which lab to work in based on your fit to that lab.

After her PhD, Marcela did a postdoc at Ohio State, and is now a research scientist and the administrative director of the Life Sciences Network at Ohio State.  She spend some time talking about alternative careers for PhDs, and that there are many jobs out there outside of academia (and industry in some cases) where a PhD is a very useful-jobs such as journal editors, science writers, and in her administrative job to name a few.  Since anyone who is interested in graduate school knows that faculty jobs are difficult to get and not plentiful, it is very good to know that a PhD can be applied to many science-related jobs throughout the country.

We had a lot of fun listening to Marcela, and she encourages anyone who is interested in the Life Sciences Network or has questions about it to contact her (her e-mail is hernandez.16@osu.edu).  Be sure to join us next week for our last lunch of the summer, where we will be joined by Dr. Meg Daly of EEOB!

Cheers,

Jackie and Tiffany

It’s that time of year — the 6th Annual Fall Student Poster Forum is coming up on Friday, September 14! Read the abstract submission guidelines, and then click here to download the abstract template. Just a reminder — abstracts are due next Friday, August 3rd by 12 pm!

To get you thinking about your posters for the 6th Annual Fall Student Poster Forum, here’s a few tips garnered from yesterday’s workship. Yesterday (7/24/2012), SURI students joined Laurie Maynell from UCAT in a workshop discussing how to most effectively present your research using posters. Poster presentations are a huge aspect of communicating your research in the academic field, particularly in STEM disciplines. For those of you who missed out on yesterday’s workshop, here are a few tips to get started!

First, think carefully about the design of your poster. Laurie mentioned that white space can be especially helpful to viewers, and too much text is often overwhelming! When designing your poster, use a good balance of text and images, diagrams, charts, etc., which will help communicate your research in a visually appealing way! In addition, think about what title headers to use (i.e. Hypothesis, Background, Conclusions). There are no mandatory title headers that one should use—just be sure all sections are labeled clearly and they make sense given the context of your poster.

This next step comes farther down the road, but it is good to start thinking about it now. One important consideration we talked about yesterday is the question of “Who is my audience?” If you are presenting at the Fall Student Poster Forum or the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, your audience will include people from all disciplines, all ages, and various degrees of knowledge about your research. If you are presenting at a discipline-specific research forum, your audience will probably include people who are more familiar with your research topic, though you cannot always be sure. To determine your viewers’ familiarity with your research topic, it is definitely okay to ask your viewers (or judges) questions! A simple question at the beginning such as, “Have you ever heard of the protein myosin?” will help you determine how familiar your viewer is with your research topic.

Finally, we recommend that you practice before your poster presenation! Practice in front of your lab members, your friends, your families, a mirror, or even your cat or dog! Pay attention to whether or not you are making good eye contact. Ask your friends and family (who might not be familiar with your discipline) whether they can still follow your research summary. No matter how technical or jargon-y your research is, you should still be able to explain your research to everyone! Pick analogies or examples that everyone can relate to, which will allow everyone to appreciate and learn from your research.

Handouts from last night’s workshop will be up on our website soon. Please let us know if you have any questions. Now that you are all prepared and know how to give the best poster presentations around, go ahead and submit your abstracts—we look forward to seeing you at the Fall Student Poster Forum!

Tiffany and Jackie

Today, we joined the Center for Emergent Materials in a workshop discussing “What Can I Do with a PhD?” The short answer is that getting an advanced degree, especially in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), opens up many doors in both industry and academia. Here are some important points as a recap for those who missed out on this workshop!

First, we were joined by panelists from both industry and academia, and all panelists offered unique perspectives on what obtaining a PhD can do for your career. One important point stressed was the importance of undergraduate research! The panelists mentioned how being involved in undergraduate research can help you decide what you are interested in—as well as what you may not be interested in! Both are critical when deciding on your future career path.

In addition, the panelists stressed that no matter how involved you are with your research project—be it your undergraduate thesis, master’s, or PhD work—to always reserve time to develop “soft skills.” Skills such as communication, writing, public presentation, and networking are so important in the field of research, and are highly valuable assets to have when applying for graduate school or jobs. Besides just having technical lab skills, employers are also looking to find well-rounded candidates. The panelists in particular recommend that graduate students join—and be greatly involved in—academic societies. Volunteering at conferences or speaking at events through that academic society is a great way to make your name known and to network with other researchers in your field. Being a successful researcher means having both the technical and the people skills!

One last item—the panelists did mention that depending on the field, people with PhD’s and people without PhD’s will sometimes do the same type of work. In order to decide whether you should pursue the PhD path, you really have to think about what it is you want to do in your career, and then think backwards, asking yourself, “Do I need a PhD to do what I want to do?” The answer will vary depending on the field. However, the panelists did mention that although PhD’s and non-PhD’s will sometimes do the same work, employers will often assign people the position of project manager because they have a PhD and have more experience. It’s something to consider!

It was a great event, and we definitely learned a lot. Have a great weekend, SURI!

We were joined at our weekly brownbag lunch yesterday by Dr. Kendra McSweeney of the Geography department.  Dr. McSweeney’s research focuses on human-environmental interaction and ecosystem resilience.  She has conducted projects in Central and South America and in southeastern Ohio.  We had a great time talking with her about her research and hearing about her rather non-traditional academic career path!

One of the things Dr. McSweeney really focused on was explaining and clarifying what her field actually does, since it is not taught in American high schools, and most US students don’t know the true nature of the field.   She emphasized that geography is very interdisciplinary, and that she collaborates with people in many different fields (such as political science, ecology, earth sciences, sociology, and anthropology). 

She also told us a lot about her career, and how she ended up in academia.  Dr. McSweeney has had a number of very interesting jobs, and even though she is in academia now, she said that she didn’t think originally that it was where she would end up.  She began as an undergraduate in geography at McGill University, and after graduation took a job through National Geographic where she lived in Central American for 30 months documenting native use of plants.  Once she finished this job, she began graduate school in the United States and then completed her PhD at McGill University in Canada.  After her PhD, she ended up at OSU.  Dr. McSweeney’s career path is a great example of pursuing your dreams, and ending up in academia after a non-academic beginning.  She really emphasized that to pursue a graduate degree, you must be passionate about your work, and not doing it for any reason other than it is what YOU want to do.  She also encouraged us all to take risks and make sure we pursue our passions in life now, because we might not have the opportunity later on. 

We had a lot of fun listening to Dr. McSweeney motivate us and remind us of the realities of graduate life.  Be sure to join us for lunch next week (the lunch speaker is currently being sorted out-check the website for more info in a few days).  If the weather isn’t too hot again, we will be out on the Oval this time.

Cheers,

Tiffany and Jackie

Yesterday, SURI students at our weekly brownbag lunch were joined by Dr. John Gunn and Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney.  Dr. Gunn is a professor in the department of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics, whose research focuses on Salmonella/Francisella interactions with hosts.  Dr. Rafael-Fortney is an associate professor in the department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, and her research focuses on treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  We had a great time talking with them about their research, and they offered lots of advice on applying to graduate and medical school!  Below are a few of the key points from yesterday’s lunch.

First, they emphasized that your undergraduate research experience is very important in helping you get into a graduate program, medical school, MD/PhD program, or when looking for a job.  Dr. Gunn and Dr. Rafael-Fortney both conducted research as undergraduates, and it was this research experience which helped lead them into their graduate programs.  In the case of Dr. Rafael-Fortney, she knew before she began undergrad that she wanted to research DMD, and chose her undergraduate institution based on that.  Dr. Gunn said that in the course of researching fruit flies as an undergraduate he realized he wanted to be a microbiologist.

They also talked a lot about the graduate school/medical school interview process.  They stressed that the interview can make or break your application, especially your interviews with current students.  You are talking to your future classmates, teachers, and advisors, and this is where they try to determine if they can work with you for the next 4+ years!  Dr. Rafael-Fortney stressed that since research is now so collaborative, it is important to be able to work with many other people on a daily basis.

Finally, they both talked about how important it is to have a good relationship with your research advisor.  If you are working more directly with a graduate student or postdoc and don’t see the lab PI too often, make sure you drop by their office to talk about how your work is going.  They both said they enjoy these kinds of visits from students, and this is a good way to develop a relationship with your PI if they are mainly out of the lab.  Down the road, they should be able to write you a really good letter of recommendation, but they can’t do that if they don’t know you.  It may take some work to forge a relationship, but it will definitely be worth it! 

These are just a few of the highlights from the lunch-this was a great opportunity to hear from persons involved in the graduate and medical school acceptance process.  Be sure to join us next week when we are joined by Dr. Kendra McSweeney from Geography.  Wednesday, July 18, 12:30pm on the Oval!

Tiffany and Jackie

So you’re applying to medical school? The medical school application timeline is long, but with careful planning, the process is not too difficult, and the end result of admission is well worth it!

My first piece of advice is to start early! Many medical schools are rolling admission, which means that the sooner you get your application in, the better. If you wait until fall semester to begin your medical school applications, interview spots may have already been distributed at some schools. If you are currently applying to enter medical school next fall, I urge you to begin your applications as soon as possible. Summer break is the perfect time to start your medical school application, as the AMCAS application can be submitted starting in June.

How many letters of recommendation do you need? Be sure to ask for these early; I recommend at least 6-8 weeks early, since professors can get extremely busy. In addition, research which medical schools you are interested in—do this early as well—and find out what their requirements are. Do your MCAT scores meet minimum requirements? Are you looking for schools with a good MD/PhD program? These are all questions to consider early on in the application process, as they will guide you in determining which schools to apply to.

The first major step in applying to medical school is your AMCAS application. This part consists of meticulously entering in your personal information (i.e. contact information, education, parent information, etc.), inputting your academic record, writing your personal statement, and writing a short blurb about your extracurricular activities, among other items to fill out.

For me, the most tedious part was entering your academic record. In this section, you must list every single class you have ever taken at OSU or another university institution, document your grade, number of credit hours, the course number, the year and term you took the class, etc. AMCAS recommends that you order yourself a copy of your transcript when filling out this section. From prior experience, I also strongly recommend that you do so because your free advising report generated from Buckeyelink has course titles listed that often don’t match up with the course titles on your official transcript. AMCAS uses your official OSU transcript to verify your application, so it certainly behooves you to access your official transcript when completing this part. Once you are completely finished with your AMCAS application, your application will reviewed by AMCAS processing. While they will not offer edits for your personal statement, they will meticulously review the academic record section to see that it matches with your OSU transcript. If there are a few mistakes, AMCAS will correct them for you. However, if there are many errors or you did not follow directions, AMCAS will ask you to revise your application, which may delay getting your applications to the various medical schools.

Regarding this “experiences” section—there are many opinions as to what you include in your activity description, but I can only offer my experience. For me, I used it as an opportunity to further elaborate on my extracurricular involvement, and explain why that experience was important enough to include on my application. Many applicants will list their research involvement in this section, and I see the “experience description” section as the place where you can really set yourself apart from the thousands of other medical school applicants who also have research experience. For example, use this section to describe your project clearly, to explain any awards or publications you received via your research—anything that will set you apart! If you were involved in an extracurricular, be sure to explain what your role was in the organization. This kind of information really helps make your application unique among all the applications that medical schools are likely to receive.

The last item I will talk about is your personal statement. Jackie offers a lot of really great advice in her post last week about graduate school that are definitely still applicable to the medical school personal statement. What is different about the medical school personal statement is that you have to explain why you want to become a doctor. Here is your chance to communicate to the admissions committee why you have chosen to dedicate your life to the art and science of medicine, how passionate you are about serving others, and why you are embarking on the long journey of medical school, residency, fellowships, etc. With that said, here are a few good resources to help you out when writing your personal statement:

http://studentdoctor.net/2007/06/before-you-write-your-personal-statement-read-this/
http://web.jhu.edu/prepro/health/Applicants/personal.html

I really encourage you to get many people to look over your personal statement—ask your family, professors, research advisor, science-major friends, humanities-major friends, etc.! The more eyes look over your personal statement, the more perspectives you will get regarding the quality of your essay, and the more confident you will be when finally submitting your AMCAS application.

As you can see, in this post, I have mostly discussed the AMCAS application, the first step of your medical school application. As I mentioned earlier, AMCAS will review your application after you submit it, and will request edits if necessary. Next, the medical schools to which you applied will start sending in requests for secondary applications. These are school-specific supplemental applications that typically require you to fill our more personal information boxes, as well as answer a few more essays, such as specific ones about why you are applying to that particular medical school. In general, is best to have a fairly quick turn-around time for these secondary essays—a few weeks is probably enough to write a thoughtful essay—before you submit your secondary application to that particular school. Afterwards, the admissions board will review your AMCAS + secondary application, and invite you for an interview (fingers crossed!).

For general questions about components to the AMCAS application, consult the AMCAS frequently asked questions page here. They have also put together a detailed Instruction Manual that gives more detail than you ever want to know about each step of the AMCAS application. Also, here is a list of application deadlines that you will want to stick to when filling out your application. Good luck!

Last week, we got some great information about writing personal statements from the folks at Career Connection.  Since I recently went through the personal statement writing and graduate school application process, I would like to pass on some advice from a student perspective.  I applied to anthropology PhD programs, but I will talk about the aspects of the application process that are also applicable to other disciplines.

Personal Statements:

First, two of the most important parts of your graduate school application are your personal statement (or statement of intent) and your letters of recommendation.  Start working on these early!  Contact your references early to ask for letters.  By now, most graduate programs have updated their deadlines for the next application cycle, so you can go and look at the guidelines for statements and start brainstorming.  You will spend a lot of time writing and revising these statements, so the earlier you start writing, the better!  Graduate committee members will spend a lot of time quickly reviewing many statements, so make it stand out (and of course make sure it’s well written and free of any grammatical/spelling errors!).

For the programs I applied to, the personal statement was crucial-I had to tell the graduate committee why I wanted to go to school there, what kind of research I wanted to do, who in the department I wanted to work with, and why I would be a good fit for their program.  The content, length, and focus of your statement will vary depending on your field, so talk to your professors, graduate students, and follow the directions/prompt provided by the program.  Some directions for writing these statements are very vague-i.e. provide us with a 500 word statement of intent-but some programs will give more detailed instructions.  If you are applying to multiple programs, you can reuse much of your statement for each program, but be sure to tailor each statement differently for each program!

Below are some very helpful websites I consulted in writing my statements:

https://career.berkeley.edu/grad/gradstatement.stm
http://students.berkeley.edu/apa/personalstatement/index.htm

Depending on your writing style and the type of program you are applying to, a statement may tell the committee more of a personal story or it may be more focused on your undergraduate career and research.  The content depends on what you want to get across to the committee with your statement.  It doesn’t hurt to perhaps propose some types of research you would like to do during graduate school (if these don’t come to fruition, it’s okay-they are not going to hold you to what you said in your personal statement down the road).

Finally, ask your research advisor, professors, graduate students, peers, parents, and friends to review your statements!  When you contact people to ask for letters of recommendation, attach a draft of your statement for each school.  They use these to help write their letters for you, and you can ask them to help you edit it if they have the time. If you have friends who are applying to graduate school in the same discipline as you, group personal statement writing sessions are very helpful-you can ask each other questions, and ask for editorial help.  Revise your statement multiple times, and then revise it some more!

The Rest of the Graduate Application Process:

While the personal statement is crucial, it is not the only aspect of a graduate school application.  There are lots of other materials you will have to submit either online or through the mail.  Since I applied to multiple programs, I created a master spreadsheet to keep track of everything each school needed, where to send everything, key contacts in the program, and what application materials I had finished/sent.  During the submission process, organization is necessary and it never hurts to check over everything frequently to make sure it’s all correct!

This is back tracking a bit in the application timeline, but the first step in applying is looking into programs and contacting faculty at those institutions you are interested in.  I contacted faculty that I was interested in working with during this time last year.  I know this isn’t true of all graduate programs, but I had to make sure the faculty I was interested in working with were accepting new students.  Since it is summer, it took a while for some of them to respond to me.  I wrote a brief e-mail introducing myself, my interests in their research and the institution, and then asked if they were accepting new students-I tried to keep the first e-mail very brief.

Many people go visit the programs they are planning on applying to before the application is due (and depending on which discipline you are on, some programs will fly you out for a visit and interview); some students wait to visit until they are accepted to a program to visit-if you have to visit on your own dime, it’s up to you when you want to visit.


Make sure to get all your materials in on time-order transcripts, extra GRE scores, etc. early so if there is some mix up and the school doesn’t receive them, you have time to fix it.  If they have an online application, you can usually check the status of the materials you had to mail in.  Some schools have a recommended deadline for application which is about 2 weeks earlier than the absolute latest deadline; if there is an earlier recommended deadline, try to submit your application by that date for fullest consideration for funding, fellowships, etc.

Keep in contact with the faculty you contacted at these schools-it’s okay to e-mail or call them with questions!  Your research advisor is a great person to help you through the process, especially if you are applying to a program to continue research similar to that you have been conducting during undergrad.

That’s all I have for now.  If you are pre-med, be sure to check out part 2 of this post, because Tiffany will be talking about the med school application process.  I’ve also posted some materials I received about applying to graduate school and writing personal statements on the URO website (click here).  These are from an anthropology workshop, but they are general enough and are good guides for other disciplines.  And when you’re all done with graduate school applications, be sure to take some time to relax and celebrate a little before you start the fun process of waiting to hear about decisions!

I’m always happy to chat about this in person or via e-mail if you have any questions for me!

Cheers,

Jackie

Yesterday, SURI researchers joined Dr. Daniel Strunk for our weekly Wednesday lunch. Dr. Strunk is a researcher and professor of Psychology at Ohio State, and studies depression and treatment strategies including cognitive therapy. We had a great time chatting with Dr. Strunk about his research, his academic path, and graduate school! Here’s a few interesting tidbits we learned from lunch yesterday.

First, one important lesson was that your undergraduate research experience matters. It matters a lot. Dr. Strunk described how besides his undergraduate coursework, he spent the rest of his free time working in the lab. His research group even hosted “Research Saturdays” where lab members would come in at 6 in the morning on Saturday do work on data analysis, writing, etc. Now that’s dedication! Dr. Strunk mentioned repeatedly that it was his extensive undergraduate research experience—which included 20-30 hours/week in the lab, several published papers, etc—that helped him land a spot in a graduate program at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. Never underestimate where your undergraduate research experience will take you!

Second, Dr. Strunk mentioned the importance of developing a quality relationship with your mentor. In particular, your research advisor can be extremely beneficial for writing letters of recommendation, which are essential components for applications to graduate and professional school. In addition, your research advisors often know other colleagues in your field of interest, and they can provide you advice on whom you may want to consider working for in graduate school. One piece of advice Dr. Strunk mentioned is to do everything you can to make your relationship with your advisor work. He mentioned how once, he had a research meeting with his advisor while standing in line for the bank, simply because that was the only time his mentor was available. Sure, it can be tough communicating with your advisor at times, but it’s incredibly important to make time for meetings in person, via email, or even while running errands!

Finally, one interesting thing that Dr. Strunk mentioned was finding a balance between doing research projects you are really interested in versus doing research projects that are feasible given time or logistical constraints. Ideally, your dream research project and the practical research project will be the same. However, that is rarely the case, and you may feel conflict as you decide which project to pursue. Dr. Strunk mentioned that one possible option is to do the practical research project—the one that will earn your thesis credit, complete your dissertation, etc.—but also pursue your dream research project on the side in your remaining time.

Just a few things to think about as you are continuing your research this summer! Lunch with Dr. Strunk was a great opportunity to relax and learn some valuable information from a faculty member on campus. Be sure to join SURI for lunch each Wednesday at 12:30pm—we meet in the center of the Oval, with a rain site in 060 Page Hall. See you next week!

Tiffany and Jackie

It was great to see so many of you at the resume workshop last night!  We’re glad you were able to come and we hope all got something out of it.  I was looking at the evaluations, and a number of people wanted to know more about CVs.  So I’m going to talk briefly about writing a student CV.  I also posted a number of CV-related handouts and templates on our website (click here).  I got these from an anthropology workshop, so the examples are tailored more towards that field, but the rest is fairly applicable to everyone. 

What is a CV?  CV, or curriculum vitae, is much more extensive than a resume and includes almost everything in your academic life.  Undergraduate CVs are typically 1-3 pages, but they can reach 50+ pages in length for some professors.  There is no length limit to a CV, but you want high quality content on there, not fluff. 

You will need a CV for applying to graduate school and for some jobs (such as research positions).  While on a resume you may have to pick and choose which experiences to put on there, on a CV you can put a lot more.  One of the main differences is that on a CV, your work experience (unless it is some sort of fellowship/research/internship/other position related to your field) is not included.  If you have gained relevant skills from your job, you can definitely find a way to include that in a section of the CV.  A second big difference is that you do list your references on a CV.

To help tailor your CV specifically to your field, look at some of your professors CVs (these are typically linked to on their faculty web page), and ask some graduate students if they are willing to show you theirs.  A CV typically includes these sections: education, appointments (academic jobs), honors and awards, publications, presentations, field and laboratory experience, professional affiliations, community outreach (related to your field), and your references.  As an undergraduate, you briefly describe your lab/field responsibilities and duties. The example I posted doesn’t have that, but it should be included.

Once you have a draft of your CV, you should ask your research advisor or another faculty member to review it.  Your friends can help you proof too!  The Writing Center on campus can help with resumes/CVs as well.  I would also be happy to help you with your CV-just send me an e-mail!

Cheers,

Jackie

For those of you that are non-OSU students, we are very excited that you will be joining us in Columbus this summer!  If you are worried about keeping busy outside of research, don’t worry; OSU and Columbus have lots going on to keep you busy all summer!

I’ve put together a list of some student favorites throughout Columbus, but this is definitely not all there is to see and do here.  Ask your roommates, lab mates, research supervisors, and other students what they like to do here!

Getting to Know Campus

The OSU campus can seem big and confusing at first, but don’t worry-it doesn’t take too long to figure out where you’re going.  The main North-South roads are High St. and Neil Ave; Woodruff/Woody Hayes and all the numbered streets run E-W.  There are five main areas of campus: North, South, West, Med Center, and Central.  If you are interested, you can do a self-guided walking tour.  I’m working on arranging a guided campus tour for anyone interested!  If you didn’t get the e-mail and would like to go, e-mail me!

Getting Around Columbus

The OSU Campus is very walkable, and there is a lot to do around Columbus that is within walking distance.  Especially in the summer, biking around Columbus is also popular. 

On campus, the CABS buses are great for getting from one end of campus to the other. 

COTA buses can take you all over.  The #2 is probably the most-used student route; it runs N-S on High Street and takes you downtown and north of campus, but there are COTA routes throughout Columbus.  COTA fare is $2/ride.

If you have a car it is easy to get around, but beware of all the construction!  It’s everywhere this summer.

Things to See and Do

◦       South Campus Gateway: features lots of restaurants, shops, bars, and a movie theater.  (Located at High and 9^th Ave.)

◦       Lennox Town Center: this is where the AMC Lennox Theater, Target, Old Navy, Staples, and a large Barnes and Noble are.  There are also a couple of restaurants! (Located over the river from Lincoln and Morrill Towers)

◦       Center of Science and Industry (COSI): an amazing science museum that brings out the kid in all of us!  (Located downtown, 333 West Broad St.)

◦       The Short North: a district just south of campus that features lots of unique restaurants, galleries, and shops.  You can walk around or take the COTA bus.

◦       Columbus Clippers: we have our own minor league team, a Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.  Tickets are very reasonable, and something fun happens at all the games!  Popular nights are the Dime-a-Dog night and fireworks. (Huntington Park is located downtown on Nationwide Blvd.)

◦       Columbus Zoo and Aquarium (and Zoombezi Bay): the Columbus Zoo is amazing (and is the home of Jack Hanna)!  (Located in Powell; it’s about a 20 minute drive-but well worth it!).  Zoombezi Bay is the waterpark right next door.

◦       The Wexner Center for the Arts:  OSU’s art museum, featuring lots of exhibitions, movie showings, and performing arts shows.  (Located on High and 15^th.)

◦       Columbus Museum of Art: lots of great exhibitions! (Located downtown at 480 East Broad Street) 

◦       Ohio Historical Society: find out more about the history, archaeology, and natural history of Ohio!  Features Ohio Village, an interpretive Civil War-era village, and lots of great exhibits.  (Located at 800 E. 17^th Ave.)

◦       The North Market: a unique place to shop and eat.  Features local merchants who sell amazing food!  (Located downtown at 59 Spruce Street).

◦       Clintonville Farmer’s Market: get some yummy local food and plants and experience the unique neighborhood of Clintonville.  Saturdays, 9am-12pm, on High and Dunedin.

◦       Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams: super delicious ice cream.  (Locations in the North Market and in the Short North-714 N. High St.)

◦       Downtown Live Concert Series: every Thursday from 6:30-10pm, see a free show at the Columbus Commons!  (Located downtown, E. Town St.)

◦       The Thurman Café: home of the delicious Thurman Burger (featured on Man vs. Food). (Located in German Village downtown, 183 Thurman Ave.)

Great Ways to Keep Up With Cbus Happenings:

◦    Experience Columbus: lists of just about everything going on around town

◦    Columbus Alive: a weekly newspaper (you can find it around campus) that is covers nightlife, news, arts, culture, and entertainment around town.

◦    Ohio Union Activities Board (OUAB): find out about on campus events, and you can get cheap tickets to events around Columbus through them!

◦    The OSU Calendar: keep up with everything happening on campus this summer!

◦    The Columbus Commons website (lots of free events).

If you have any questions about Ohio State, the campus, Columbus, or anything else, feel free to ask our office anytime or talk to your fellow SURI participants!

See you all at the kickoff!

Cheers,

Jackie