Tips for someone who thinks way in advance?

[calliope_dogstar]

This year (early into Junior year) I made some big decisions and wound up deciding to go to grad school.

This has been occupying my thoughts like crazy, and I am hoping for some advice-

I am planning to enter grad school fall of 2014, and I am a mom of two kids and a wife of an awesomely supportive husband. How early is too early to make contact with professors?

I have so many concerns, like how to move my whole family some other place on short notice when we've been buying a house that is now worth less than when we bought it.

Also, what are some good things to do over the next three semesters to make myself a more competitive candidate?

-I took the practice GRE, and scored something like 156 V and 154 Q with no preparation, a roomful of noise, and not much time to think about each question.

- My major area GPA is 4.0 (but will drop slightly after this genetics course

).

- I am working as an undergraduate teaching assistant in introductory biology lab courses, and as a lab assistant working with an organism of interest to my long term plans.

Thank you!

[meeb]

It's never too early, go ahead and establish contact. The longer you have contact, the better when it comes to applying and getting LOR's.

[TakeruK]

I think it's too early to make contact with profs at your prospective grad schools now. Fall 2014 is a really long way aways!

However, it's not too early to start gathering resources to think about grad schools. It's actually the best time right now!! You should be making contact with profs at your own school. It sounds like you have at least one research project (the lab assistantship). You could ask to sit down with the PI of that group and let them know you are very interested in grad school. They should have lots of advice for you and they will probably tell you to work as many hours (full time is nice if possible) during Summer 2013. Then you would have at least two strong research projects under your belt when applying to PhD programs. They might also suggest other profs you can talk to in your current department.

Alternatively (or in addition to doing the above), find some other profs at your school (or another school in the same city if there's two) and start talking to them now about working for them in Summer 2013. From your description, it sounds like you will have a very strong GPA but grad school is about much more than just academic talent. Schools want to recruit students who have demonstrated research talent (or potential for research talent). So if I were you, my focus from now until Fall 2013 would be to increase my research experience.

From my own experience, Research assistants get paid a lot better than teaching assistants anyways, so if time is an issue, I'd also prioritize a research/lab assistant position over a teaching one. TAing is a big part of grad school, but doing at least one semester of it is more than enough to help you get into grad school -- doing more won't help.

I'd try to find some time to do the GRE sometime next summer. And maybe start making contact with prospective profs sometime next summer too, after your summer research project/job is well underway (then when you introduce yourself to prospective profs, you can mention both research experiences that you've had).

Hope that was helpful! My intention was to outline a possible list of things to do to help maximize your chances of getting into a school. But I realise you might have another concern -- maybe you are wanting to contact profs to help you get more information earlier to prepare for a move? If that's the case, then I still think you should hold off talking to profs until next summer if you want really concrete answers. If you ask profs now about 2014, only the ones that know for sure they will be away (e.g. a planned sabbatical etc.) can give concrete answers. Everyone else will likely say that they will be looking for students, but they can't really say anything about how likely they would want to work with you in 2014 when they haven't even met the 2013 applicants yet.

Finally, I apologize if you already know this information about normal timelines. For you, applications will probably be due Dec 2013 to Jan 2014. You will probably hear back from schools between Feb 2014 and April 2014. Some schools will begin their terms in August 2014 but others might be as late as October 2014. In the best case, you might have about 6 months, which isn't a lot of time to move an entire household, and in the worst case, only 4 months!!

My (also awesomely supportive) wife and I don't have kids yet but we had some similar concerns when applying to PhD programs. We are from Canada, so there was also the worry about me getting the right student status so that my wife could apply for permission to work. What we found helpful was to work together in the whole admissions process. I first compiled a list of schools with programs that interested me and then both of us went over it and eliminated any locations that would not work for us (e.g. not possible for my wife to work/find jobs, or not a place we want to raise kids [we want it to be easy for us to visit our parents and vice versa], etc.) At this time, I also contacted profs to rule out places that won't work anyways. Before I applied anywhere, there were 8 schools on the list, but they were really grouped into 3 different geographical regions, each with their pros and cons. We found this process to be helpful in managing our worries about uncertainties in the future. While waiting for application results, we could at least look at what housing, health insurance, all that stuff would cost in each of the 3 places and make plans for how we would move all our stuff, etc.

After deciding on a school (we made the final decision around April), we were worried about finding a place to live. Many schools have special housing for graduate students with families (usually unfurnished so it's basically an apartment or townhouse where the school is also your landlord). They usually have very flexible leases -- for example, my school does not make new students sign a lease with them (there is a 1 month minimum stay though) and it's only 2 weeks notice to move out. In California, the standard move-out notice is only 30 days (so we would not be able to really look for a place to live until 1 month before we got there!!). So, our back-up plan was to live in graduate student family housing until we found a place to live. However, some schools have long wait lists to get a spot in this type of housing, and we learned that they accepted wait list applicants as soon as you've been accepted to the school. So, keep an eye out for these things and sign up for the wait list as soon as you hear good news from the school -- you can always cancel your application (check to ensure there's no fee though) if you change your mind about that school. Fortunately, we did find a place to live before the term started but it was a stress relief to know that we did have a backup option.

Sorry for writing so much, but I hope the second part was more helpful at addressing some of your concerns! We were really stressed out and we didn't have kids and were just renting, so I could only imagine how much more stressful it is for you and your family. Definitely take advantage of all resources (e.g. the housing/waitlist options above) though -- sometimes they are not very well advertised since most students are not coming in with families!

[calliope_dogstar]

TakeruK,

Thank you! This is all extremely helpful, every bit of it. It is nice to know I am on the right track generally and have been thinking the right things- you echoed what has been bouncing around in my head as what I imagine is the proper "plan".

I spoke to my advisor this week (it's her lab I work in) and am ready to start some experimental work next semester under independent problems course credit. I explained to her my goal of preparing myself for graduate school and becoming familiar with the types of work and experience that I will have. I have gotten to do a run-through on a type of simple experiment done in the lab and will become familiar with more techniques over the next semester.

I understand the comment about TA work- for now it is a nice fit for me because I need to improve my speaking skills and work through some social anxiety issues. Teaching about the things I love to the introductory students has helped a lot, because it is building some confidence. I suspect I will want to TA some in grad school for similar reasons, as my anxieties will rise again with a new location. I had been seeking a path to be a high school teacher when I changed my mind and realized how much more I want and desire to do this instead. I still have an interest in teaching and outreach- so doing TA work has been helping me hone those skills.

Thank you so much for your replies TakeruK and meeb!!

[Bearcat1]

Look into the prices you could get for renting your house, and maybe even find a realtor who deal with rental properties. They should meet with you and discuss costs for free. If that's a possibility, the 4-6 months notice you'll have should be plenty.

[thenerdypengwin]

A year can be very valuable. Don't just think about getting in with professors... you wanna get to know them and their research and teaching style so that you can make a good decision about who you would like your career and the next 5 years of your life to rest with. Try internships or observe. Most PIs are too busy to really respond with substance in email. Moreover, if you can get to see the lab, you'll learn new techniques now and be able to compare the different options of lab experiences.