I'm an Undergrad and I Have no Clue If Grad School Is For Me

[PoliticalTheoryFromAB]

I'm currently in my 4th (out of 5) year at a Canadian University. I'm doing a combined Political Science-Economics Honors BA. I'm fascinated by 20th century moral/political philosophy as it pertains to ideas of justice, fairness, and distribution within liberal societies (Rawls, Capability Theory, (Bleeding Heart-)Libertarianism, etc.) and some economic applications of that (basic income, NIT, etc.)

I haven't taken the GRE (thinking this Winter). I don't have any publications. I have no academic work experience (RA, think-tanks, etc.). I'm sitting around a 3.9 cumulative GPA so far.  

My faculty have been relatively unhelpful so far ("go read some articles, find out who you like, etc.") and I'm kind of at a loss on several fronts. 

1) How Do you Make Your CV stand out (and how much does that matter)?

If I want to end up at an upper-middle tier university, is it a fact that I'll have to do 5 years of related work experience to add to my CV?

2) MA v. PhD
I've found a couple professors I love at other schools, but the reputation/placement history of their grads is... pretty sub par. I'd love to maybe go, do an MA with one of them to refine my own ideas and then apply for a PhD at a larger school if my heart is still in it at that point. Is it harder applying to a PhD program from a different MA program, or getting in an MA program at a large school?

3) When Should I Start my application process? Is there a convenient (and good) "How to Apply to Grad School" guide out there somewhere? Google has let me down so far...

4) How do I even find out if this is something I can do?

I'm the first member of my family to go to University (small town Alberta) and none of my extended family members are professionals or academics. Money is tight, but not non-existent. I'm not wedded to a particular geographic area. I love the subject manner, and I'm excited to do my thesis, but I really don't know what I can do to find out if this is something I can actually do. 

Any help/tips/charity would go a long way, and I wish I would have found this forum sooner!

Thank you anyone for any tips!
 

[bsharpe269]

Honestly, even if it doesnt sound helpful at the time, "go read papers" is the absolute best advice that you can get. Have you done this much after it being recommended by professors? It took me around a year of consistantly reading papers in my field (like 5 a week at least) to finally find my particular niche. Now that I have found it and along with it, all of the big names in my subfield, there is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that I want to go to grad school. So even if you arent looking for advice to go read papers, I really think that it is the only way that you will figure out whether you have a passion for this stuff or not. Now that I found my specific passion, I can easily read papers in this area for 8 hours straight and the time flies by because I love it so much.

 

If you do go straight to PhD then it is really important to have a well known advisor who has a history of placing students well. It is hard enough to break into academia with a well known advisor! It sounds like a masters might be a great option for you. I am in the second year of my masters and currently applying for phd programs. I was a lot like you (though different field) my senoir year. I had sort of narrowed in my interests but wasnt sure. The masters has been an amazing experience and has really helped me figure out my interests and goals! It sounds like you have a good resume now though too so I am not trying to necesarily dissuade you from applying to PhD programs as well. As far as creating a good resume, I think the answer is just reserach research research. The more and the deeper you go with it, the better.

[wildlifer]

I'm currently in my 4th (out of 5) year at a Canadian University. I'm doing a combined Political Science-Economics Honors BA. I'm fascinated by 20th century moral/political philosophy as it pertains to ideas of justice, fairness, and distribution within liberal societies (Rawls, Capability Theory, (Bleeding Heart-)Libertarianism, etc.) and some economic applications of that (basic income, NIT, etc.)

I haven't taken the GRE (thinking this Winter). I don't have any publications. I have no academic work experience (RA, think-tanks, etc.). I'm sitting around a 3.9 cumulative GPA so far.  

My faculty have been relatively unhelpful so far ("go read some articles, find out who you like, etc.") and I'm kind of at a loss on several fronts. 

1) How Do you Make Your CV stand out (and how much does that matter)?

If I want to end up at an upper-middle tier university, is it a fact that I'll have to do 5 years of related work experience to add to my CV?

2) MA v. PhD

I've found a couple professors I love at other schools, but the reputation/placement history of their grads is... pretty sub par. I'd love to maybe go, do an MA with one of them to refine my own ideas and then apply for a PhD at a larger school if my heart is still in it at that point. Is it harder applying to a PhD program from a different MA program, or getting in an MA program at a large school?

3) When Should I Start my application process? Is there a convenient (and good) "How to Apply to Grad School" guide out there somewhere? Google has let me down so far...

4) How do I even find out if this is something I can do?

I'm the first member of my family to go to University (small town Alberta) and none of my extended family members are professionals or academics. Money is tight, but not non-existent. I'm not wedded to a particular geographic area. I love the subject manner, and I'm excited to do my thesis, but I really don't know what I can do to find out if this is something I can actually do. 

Any help/tips/charity would go a long way, and I wish I would have found this forum sooner!

Thank you anyone for any tips!

 

 

Hello there. Not sure if I can be of some help or not, but, have you thought of maybe taking some time off after you finish your BA? Schools will always be there and maybe taking a year or so off will help you to determine what works best for you and maybe gain some work experience that would help boost your CV/resume. 

 

As far as when you should apply? From everything I've read and discussed with former professors, it is really dependent on your field and the school itself. But if you are starting the basic process now (researching schools, prepping for the GRE, etc) you'll be ahead of the game so to speak when you're actually ready to apply. I'm trying to get this all figured out myself by this winter so I can apply by January in hopes of a Fall admission. I wish I had started sooner, but ah well, life happens. 

 

Keep searching on here, you may find more specific answers. I have found this site and members to be really helpful. Good luck. 

[cooperstreet]

been relatively unhelpful so far ("go read some articles, find out who you like, etc.") 

 

 

This is actually really useful advice. Political science != politics.

 

If I want to end up at an upper-middle tier university, is it a fact that I'll have to do 5 years of related work experience to add to my CV?

 

 

No.

[victorydance]

I'll just hit on number 1 for now:

 

"1) How Do you Make Your CV stand out (and how much does that matter)?

If I want to end up at an upper-middle tier university, is it a fact that I'll have to do 5 years of related work experience to add to my CV?"

 

No, not even close. In fact, "work experience" means practically nothing in the academic world. What really matters is research experience. The only way to truly beef up your CV is to get a long-term, or multiple positions, as a research assistant. 

 

It's not too late. I landed my first RA position in my senior year. Any professors who you have a relationship with or have similar interests to you should be approaching them to try and get involved in their research in some capacity. The only problem here is theory can be a little more difficult to get RA positions for but I have seen students get them. Ask if you get do lit reviews or something at the least, paid or not. 

 

Research experience is really important not only for your applications but it will give you a better idea if you want to pursue research or not and also help you further define your interests.

[TakeruK]

I'll respond to these latter points, as a fellow first generation university (of any type) in my immediate family and first generation graduate student in my extended family. I will try to avoid making science-centric statements if I can!

 

2) MA v. PhD
I've found a couple professors I love at other schools, but the reputation/placement history of their grads is... pretty sub par. I'd love to maybe go, do an MA with one of them to refine my own ideas and then apply for a PhD at a larger school if my heart is still in it at that point. Is it harder applying to a PhD program from a different MA program, or getting in an MA program at a large school?

3) When Should I Start my application process? Is there a convenient (and good) "How to Apply to Grad School" guide out there somewhere? Google has let me down so far...

4) How do I even find out if this is something I can do?

I'm the first member of my family to go to University (small town Alberta) and none of my extended family members are professionals or academics. Money is tight, but not non-existent. I'm not wedded to a particular geographic area. I love the subject manner, and I'm excited to do my thesis, but I really don't know what I can do to find out if this is something I can actually do. 

Any help/tips/charity would go a long way, and I wish I would have found this forum sooner!

Thank you anyone for any tips!
 

 

2) For Canadian schools, it's almost always MA first then PhD. It's fairly normal and I'd say equally likely for Canadian grad students to either stay at their MA school for PhD, or go to a different school for their PhD, or enter the working force with a MA (i.e. no further school).

 

3) Here is a good timeline from astrobites.org: http://astrobites.org/2014/08/28/applying-to-grad-school-in-the-us-a-timeline

Note that this is for US schools and is originally written for astronomy/physics grad programs. However, if you are a first generation grad applicant, I think this is a great start to see the big picture/overview of the application process. Specific details will vary from country to country and field to field (e.g. the fellowships) but general process (e.g. getting LORs, GREs etc.) are the same. If you are applying to Canadian schools, note that most of our deadlines are Jan-Feb rather than Dec-Jan.

 

4) The only way to know if you can do it is to try! Go do that undergrad thesis and learn. Try to get research experience if you can. My most helpful resource was my undergrad thesis advisor. He was a mentor to me and basically an "academic parent" that taught me the "unwritten" rules of academia and helped me understand how everything works. Above all, believe in yourself and it might seem very daunting to be part of this completely foreign world but take every opportunity you can and don't be afraid to fail. Go for it!