Is There Life After the Baccalaureate? How Graduate School May be an Option for You

1. Is There Life After the Baccalaureate? How Graduate School May be an Option for You

2. Why Go? Poor Reasons • Someone in your family told you to go • Your best friend is going • Nothing else to do at the moment • Doctors get better seats in restaurants • You aren’t ready to start working for a living • It’s a good place to meet girls/guys

3. Why Go? Good Reasons • You have found a subject or discipline that you can’t put out of your mind. If you could, you would work at this 24 hours/day. You can’t get enough of it. • You have done an undergraduate research project and it was a real turn on. • You have always wanted to teach in college.

4. Why Go? Other Reasons • When you encounter a problem, you think about it until you solve it, even if it takes days. You often cannot get it out of your mind • You want to cure cancer or build the first controlled fusion reactor • You would prefer to have others working for you, rather than you working for others

5. Graduate School Myths • Only people with 4.0 averages get in • Only people with 1600 GRE scores get in • Graduate classes are just like under-graduate classes only more intense • If you have a bad grade in any class you will not be accepted

6. Graduate School Reality • You need to be very good at what you do • You need a “fire in the belly” or passion for your chosen field • Graduate classes are unlike under-graduate classes; a different skill set is required and must be developed for success • Drive and motivation counts as much or more than native intelligence (having both is nice, of course)

7. Levels of Graduate Study • Master’s degree, 1-2 years of FT study • Plan A (Thesis master’s) • Plan B (Coursework master’s) • Professional master’s (MBA, MPH, etc.) • Professional doctoral degree (MD, JD, PharmD, etc.), time is variable • Research doctoral degree (PhD), typically 4-7 years of study • Some doctoral programs require a master’s along the way, others don’t

8. Financial Support for Graduate Study • Graduate Assistantships should include • A stipend • Tuition waiver • Health insurance • Teaching (TA) or Research (RA) duties • Doctoral study should be supported in STEM disciplines and many others • Master’s study can be supported • Professional study is usually not supported

9. What Do We Look For in an Applicant? • Likelihood to succeed in graduate school, as measured by • Grade point average • GRE or other scores • Research or scholarship experience • Personal statement (statement of purpose) • Letters of recommendation • Most important: Research Experience • Least important: GRE scores • With research experience comes good letters and a good personal statement

10. Choosing a School • Do NOT choose a school: • for its basketball or football team • because your friend went there • because its in a nice part of the country • because they offer you the most money • because it would be nice to have a degree from there

11. Fundamental Principles • Be organized • Know the application deadlines • Know what is expected of you • Know what you are getting into

12. Things to Know • Graduate school admission is a competitive process, based on academic merit • Only a fraction of the applicant cohort is admitted • That fraction varies greatly among programs • Each student is considered individually; no formula is used

13. More Things to Know • Every program’s primary admissions strategy is to admit those with the greatest probability of success • Admissions evaluation is an inexact process, based on human judgment • Correlation studies have been inconclusive, at best

14. Strategic Thinking • Choose your intended school and program carefully • Make sure it fits your needs and future career plans • Don’t apply to a school you will not attend. It wastes your time and theirs • Apply to a range of programs, with some “safety,” some “competitive,” and some “reach”

15. Choosing a Master’s School • At the master’s level you are looking for a “value added” experience • The overall quality of the program is probably more significant than the research mentor connections, depen-ding on your choice of careers • Seek advice from your faculty advisors on the suitability of one or more schools and programs • Narrow your choices based on the above research

16. Choosing a Master’s School, continued • Visit your prospective school. Make sure you fit with its culture and that it fits with your career needs • Talk with the graduate students or sit in on a class to assess the academic environment • Proximity can be more important than it is with a doctoral school • Apply to a range of schools that fit your needs

17. Choosing a Doctoral School • At the doctoral level you are picking a mentor, not a school • Become familiar with established scholars, whose work you admire • Seek advice from your faculty advisors on who has a track record of successful research and student mentoring • Narrow your choices based on the above research

18. Choosing a Doctoral School, continued • Visit your prospective school. Make sure you fit with its culture and that it fits with your research vision & goals • Talk with the graduate students without faculty present to find out how it really is in that environment • Choose a range of schools that would fit your needs • Don’t limit to one school; some may not be taking students in your discipline

19. Timeline for Fall Admits • Deadlines are usually between December 1 and March 1 • Most programs notify you of their decision by April 1 if not earlier • Most schools adhere to the Council of Graduate Schools April 15 response agreement • Master’s programs (especially “professional” ones) often have a later schedule, sometimes even after classes start (but don’t count on it)

20. Application Components • The application itself • The application fee • Transcripts • Recommendation letters • Statement of purpose (aka personal statement) • Test score reports • Other supporting materials

21. Transcripts • Collect sealed copies from all schools you have attended since high school • Some schools require them to come directly from the school; most allow them to come from you in sealed envelopes • Your high school record is irrelevant • Make sure they are official copies • Wait until after the close of the term and grades are posted, if possible

22. Recommendation Letters • Be timely in your requests • If possible, ask: • Research mentors • Academic advisors • Instructors you have had more than once • Unless it is unavoidable, do not ask: • Employers, unless directed by the program • Family members • Clergy • Instructors who do not know you well • TAs or other graduate students

23. Statement of Purpose • This tells the program what you want them to know beyond your grades • Most important factor after academics • Be sure to include • What you want to be when you grow up, and why • Why you want to be in this particular program • Indicators of your potential & earnestness • A little about who you are and your life experience (use care – don’t go wild) • An explanation of anomalies in your record

24. Statement of Purpose • Demonstrate your knowledge of the target program • Know who is there and what they do • Share how your background and interests fit nicely with the program • This is important enough to have at least one, preferably more, editors and proofreaders check it • Write a different statement for each program (and keep them straight)

25. Standardized Test Scores • E.g., GRE, GMAT, MAT, TOEFL, others • Not all programs require them • Of those that do, not all attach great importance to them • They often can help you; sometimes they can hurt you • They should never be used as a cutoff criterion • Find out how your target program treats them and plan accordingly

26. Sources of Information • http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=199 (comprehensive resource) • http://www.psywww.com/careers/perstmt.htm (personal statement) • http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/grad-school.html (advice on choosing a doctoral program) • Asher, Donald: “Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice,” Ten Speed Press, ISBN 0-89815-042-1