Next Monday, more than 3,900 students will be graduating at the University’s 165th commencement ceremony before moving on to new jobs, schools and other post-undergraduate plans.

College senior Laura Kochman, a joint major in English and creative writing, is one of five students accepted to the University of Alabama’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program for creative writing in poetry.

Kochman said that although she took the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) exam early in her college career, she did not decide to go to graduate school until this academic year.

“It’s something that I’ve been thinking about doing for a while, but I made the final decision in September,” Kochman said.

College senior Lauren Crowley is not going to get a break from school.

Crowley, who is an English major at Emory, will be attending nursing school next fall at Mercer University’s Georgia Baptist College of Nursing.

Crowley wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that she has enrolled in pre-nursing classes at Athens Technical College for the summer and will also be taking classes online with either the University of Phoenix or University of Georgia.

“I decided to go to nursing school during the summer between my sophomore and junior year. My original plan had been to go to law school after graduating. But I had talked to a friend who had just gotten out of law school, and I guess I realized that it wasn’t what I thought,” she wrote.

Crowley wrote that she ultimately chose nursing both because it is something she is passionate about and because it is a stable and rewarding job that offers flexible hours, which she added would be important when raising a family.

Crowley wrote that she is glad she has an English degree from Emory.

“The department is teeming with wonderful professors, and it’s been a great experience,” she wrote.

Goizueta Business School senior Tiffany Soo, an accounting major, said that Emory helped her secure her auditing job with Grant Thornton LLP.

“When you start the accounting program at Emory, they do a lot with recruiting,” Soo explained. “The B-school holds a lot of recruiting events.”

Soo said she hopes to go back to school for her Ph.D in a few years because she has goals to become a teacher, even though most people who go into auditing stay in the business eventually move up in the ranks and ideally join a business partnership.

College senior Anousheh Shafa said her interest in Teach for America (TFA) began to develop last fall after she applied for the program.

A neuroscience and behavioral biology major and linguistics minor, Shafa will be working in the San Jose Unified School District in California’s Bay Area next year.

“I met with Monique [Moore], who is the Emory recruiter, and her excitement, coupled with the enthusiasm of the student recruiters on campus, caught my interest,” Shafa said.

Before applying for a position with TFA, Shafa said she considered going straight to medical school or working at Emory for a year. When TFA became an option, Shafa said she made the decision she did because “TFA provides the most rewarding experience in the shortest amount of time.”

After two years of teaching, she added that she will most likely go to medical school.

B-school senior Pace Austin, who was the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Council president during his senior year, will be starting his job with finance data and software company Bloomberg L.P. in New York City.

Austin, who is also a history major in the College, will be graduating from the B-school with a dual concentration in finance and business communication.

“In applying to jobs over this past year, it’s been kind of stressful deciding what to do after college,” Austin admitted.

Bloomberg was his first choice, however, and he was offered the job after interviewing in December.

Austin said that he will be in training in a classroom setting for two months, followed by field training for up to two years, depending on performance, before becoming a Bloomberg representative.

Austin, who does not start his job until August, said he is looking forward to traveling, spending time with friends and family and relaxing during the summer, which he calls the “first real break” he has had in a long time.

He added that he credits Emory for his success.

“I’m glad that Emory has given me such great opportunities,” Austin said. “Emory has really prepared me well.”

— Contact Alice Chen.