Preparing to Apply to Graduate School in the Future

[Extra Espresso]

I wrote this to answer a question in the questions and answers forum, but I thought people over here may find it useful! I wrote it from the STEM perspective, so feel free to correct me/add details for other fields. 

If you think you may want to apply to grad school, there are several things you can do now to set yourself up well for your future applications if you end up deciding to apply to later down the road. 

1. Keep your grades up! This goes for getting a job post graduate school as well, but GPA tends to be a reasonably large factor in the admissions process. The most important classes will be those related to your field of study, but you will also want to have the highest overall GPA you can manage. 

2. Start/maintain strong relationships with a few of your professors. Talk to them during their office hours, go above and beyond in their class, chat with them regularly, create relationships with them. When the graduate school application process rolls around, you are going to need professors to write recommendation letters for you where they vouch that you are an amazing student and have strong potential to succeed in graduate school. The best letters come from professors that actually know you well and can speak to their personal relationship with you. 

3. If you end up in a lab research-centric field (like biology, chemistry, engineering, etc.), start in undergraduate research as soon as you can. The best way to do this is to poke around on professor and department websites and search for their research blurbs. Read through those until you get a feel for the types of work that interests you. Obviously your interests are going to be broad and undefined at this point - that is absolutely fine. Just find a few things that sound fun and roll with it!

Reach out to those professors (either by email or by actually going to their office) and ask if they have any openings for an undergraduate research assistant. Be persistent! It is HIGHLY unlikely that you will be able to get into the lab of the first person you talk to (depending on your department/university), but you will get absolutely no where if you don't try.

The easiest professors to get in with are ones who you have had class with and already have a good relationship with (see #2), so you can always start there!

4. Use your summers wisely - do something with your summer breaks that is meaningful. This can be a summer internship, a volunteer experience, an outreach program, a study abroad term, or something similar. Whatever you do should be something that gives you a new experience and helps you grow as a person. Get out there, explore, try something brand new, broaden your horizons, all those cliches. Not only will you grow, but you'll get a better feel for who you are and what you want you want to do, and you'll also have something to talk about in that beast of a personal statement you eventually have to write.

Summer internships are an amazing way to get some research experience. If you are having difficulties getting into a lab at school, look for an internship that typically takes students with little research experience and use that as your springboard into the field. Internships are also a great way to explore research that's different from what you are doing at school and can help you narrow your broad research interests!

5. Do something with the research you're doing. Publications are the gold shining star of a graduate school application, but it can be extremely difficult to publish your research as an undergraduate (this depends on your lab). Whether or not you are going to be able to get a paper out of your research, try to find avenues to present it. Most research universities offer some type of undergraduate research symposium where undergrads present what they've been working on. There are also regional conferences as a part of the big national societies that students frequently present at. You can also present at a national conference (depending on your lab)! This is also an option with any research you do over the summer - be sure to talk to the people you intern/work with to see if that is an option. 

6. Get involved with something you are passionate about outside of the classroom. So now that I've harped on the huge importance of research, I can move on to the other stuff. Do something outside of your classes/research that you are excited about. This can be band, sports, outreach to local schools, volunteering at a food pantry, working for the school newspaper, photography, something.

Get involved and not just on the surface level. Show commitment to the activity/organization. Take on a leadership role, branch out and start a new organization, or something along those lines that shows it is important to you. The goal here is to show that you are a real person with interests outside of school and also that you are committed and motivated. It's much, much better to be deeply involved in a select few things you are passionate about than to be barely involved in twenty different activities. 

7. Look into awards, prestigious scholarships, etc. that you may qualify for. There are tons of awards and scholarships out there that will recognize you for all of the hard work you have been putting in. Depending on what your interests/fields are, you can join honor societies like Phi Kappa Phi or Phi Beta Kappa or field-specific ones. You can apply for the Goldwater Scholarship when you have one to two years of college remaining if you are in STEM. There's also Fulbright, Truman, Marshall, Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, and a whole slew of other prestigious scholarships that you can look into applying to. A lot of professional societies also have undergraduate awards and scholarships that you can consider for your individual field.

Your university probably has an office/person to assist people in applying for these types of awards, and I definitely encourage you to find them and talk to them about your options! There are also specific awards for minorities if that applies to you and first generation college students. While these are not nearly as important to your application as a strong research background and recommendation letters, they can definitely be extra jewels in the crown. 

8. Keep track of everything that you are doing. You are going to be busy during college with lots of class, activities, research, and summer plans! Start a resume, CV, and list of classes (with course number, full title, number of credits, professor, textbook, your grade in the class, and a one-line blurb about what you did in the class). You can find good templates online for a resume and CV, or you can talk to the career office at your school for help. You will thank yourself later for starting early because it's so much easier to remember all of the details about your involvement when it's actually happening than three or four years down the line! 

9. Keep in mind the components of the graduate school application so you can plan ahead as necessary. For every field, your graduate school application is going to have several key components: GPA (major and overall), GRE scores (verbal, quantitative, and writing), two to three recommendation letters from faculty, a CV, and a personal statement. For some fields, you may also need a subject GRE score, a writing sample, and/or a portfolio of your work. This is why I said keep your grades up (#1), have good relationships with faculty (#2), do research (#3 - 5), and start your CV early (#8). 

10. Do your research! When you reach your junior year (probably the spring of your junior year), you should start thinking about what grad school programs you might be interested in, what you want to study, and what you need to prepare for your applications. You should also think about when you want to take the GRE and set up a study plan. I won't go into more detail here because there's TONS of information about both of these things on the site, and that's still a while away for you. 

11. Take a deep breath and enjoy college.  I listed tons of advice here, but the last thing you need to do is stress out. By already thinking about what you need to do to prepare for grad school, you're way ahead of the game and you're going to be just fine. Take the time to enjoy your college experience because undergrad can be a whole lot of fun, and you don't want to miss out on that! GOOD LUCK!  

[alberber]

I wish I read this as a freshmen hahaha. Good advices. Which undergraduate school did you go to? I am in the BioE field as well.

Edited March 25, 2016 by alberber

[Extra Espresso]

7 hours ago, alberber said:

I wish I read this as a freshmen hahaha. Good advices. Which undergraduate school did you go to? I am in the BioE field as well.

Thanks!! The person I wrote it for is a sophomore, and it made me realize that I wish I knew someone in graduate school when I was starting out to give me advice. I go to a large flagship state school in the south!

[rising_star]

This post is incredibly helpful so I pinned it to make it easier for future applicants to find. Thanks, Extra Espresso!

[Extra Espresso]

12 minutes ago, rising_star said:

This post is incredibly helpful so I pinned it to make it easier for future applicants to find. Thanks, Extra Espresso!

Ahhh, that makes me so excited! I'm glad I could help people out!

[natalierf20]

Such useful advice!! Especially the bit about using your summers wisely. I found that volunteering abroad during my summer in Sri Lanka on a Mental Health placement (with SLV) was such a great way to not only do something worthwhile with my spare time but also I think it really helped me to stand out from other applicants when I was applying to my Master's courses here in the UK (equivalent to Grad School) as I was really struggling to find relevant experience to with Psychology and Mental Health. Best thing I've ever done!

[Chambers]

I just saw this thread, and I wanted to contribute my kudos to the author. Very helpful post for us youngsters thinking about graduate school!

[MathCat]

I think point 3 is valid in any field. I know research experience helps in math as well, though the likelihood of publication is even lower than in lab sciences.

[ThousandsHardships]

I'd like to contribute something about humanities majors. Most of these points still apply, but since most faculty research alone and do not have labs, there are not as many undergraduate research assistantships to go around. But research experience is still very important, and the way that successful candidates get this experience is usually through an honors thesis, which is basically an independent research project that you take on your senior year, supervised by a faculty member in your field. And do a lot of reading outside of class (both primary and secondary resources and theoretical readings) on the topic you're interested in so that you can show off your knowledge when needed. When applying to graduate programs, also make sure to read the publications of the faculty that you think you may want to work with so that you can talk to them about their research.

Teaching potential is also considered for applicants to humanities PhD programs, because it is typically assumed that students entering into a humanities PhD aspire to a career in academia. A lot of the times these students are actually required to teach during grad school as part of their professional development (often leading classes on their own), which differs from a lot of STEM programs which treat teaching as only a means of financial support as needed. So it would be very useful to obtain some teaching experience in either the field that you intend to go into or in writing in general, because all humanities fields require writing.

[OpenMindKim]

One advice I want to give to all of you, especially if you are applying for a PhD program in Cognitive Psychology (as this is where my personal experience is most relevant):

Just apply anyway, and do your best despite what you believe holds you back on your application.

A few months ago, I asked for advice on the GradForums and showed people my GPA and explained my relevant experience. Everyone advised that I not apply during this admission cycle to PhD programs, and to instead look into Master's programs.

Here's how my application looked:
GPA: 3.24
GRE: 165 (95%), 155 (59%), 5 (93%)
1 year of relevant experience in a lab (no papers published).
Relevant course experience.

Forget all that junk.

I took this advice to heart, and asked for input on how to start this process from the professor in the lab that I had just joined that year (my only relevant experience outside of class to add to my application). He balked at the idea, and explained that a Master's would be incredibly financially draining, and offer little support to me down the line. He inspired me to aim higher, and told me to forget about the negative portions of my applications, and gave me an emboldening evaluation of how I was a good fit for Cognitive Psychology research. He inspired me to apply despite my lack of qualifications.

Of the six schools that I have applied to, I have received an interview at 3 (Binghamton, Rutger's, BYU), been accepted at 1 already (Binghamton), been rejected from another (Notre Dame), and am currently waiting on replies from 2 more schools (Stony Brook, CUNY).

From my experience in visiting admissions forums, asking questions on this forum, and viewing applicant data at PhD programs, I believed my chances of even receiving an interview was lower than 1%. I ended up receiving interviews from half of the schools I applied for. I was completely expecting to receive rejections from all of my schools, and was already making plans to work as a Research Assistant.

The lesson here? Apply anyway. Go through that process with vigor, and secure those relationships with your professors. Talk to them, be engaged in what you want to do, and show your enthusiasm for why you want to do it. Do everything you can to make your application a strong one, despite not having much to show for it. Do not lie, but do show how relevant what experiences you had are, and how much of its application that you understand. Luck definitely plays a huge role in your admissions process, from the spots that will be open relevant to you in a school's department, to whether or not you receive an interview or acceptance, but don't let that discourage you from trying your best.

Honestly, I believe what worked best for me was demonstrating my fit and desire to want to be a part of these programs. I demonstrated this by having a solid plan in place on the type of research I wished to do, and showing my desire to research and further understand a process related to the lab I had been working in. I truly did not believe I was qualified, I truly still believe that other applicants would have better experience and qualifications than I do for all of these programs. But it doesn't matter. What matters in the end is that you receive an interview or an acceptance letter - so demonstrate that you ARE that qualified and well fitting candidate. I don't have a single paper published, or my name on any of the research in my lab - I've only been on for an year, including this semester. I don't believe I am remarkably talented, or even remotely experienced in the field of research I was in. But I still persevered and found an enthusiasm to draw on in the line of research I was in.

Hell, the road to my application alone was incredibly uncertain. Finding my 3rd recommender was a difficult process, and the professor who eventually wrote it was at first hesitant to write me one as he believed I was aiming too high considering my qualifications, and didn't know enough about me to write me a recommendation. But I persevered, I explained my intentions and desires in the field, abided by his instructions, developed a deeper relationship with him through correspondence afterwards, and was able to convince him to write my letter of recommendation. These letters of recommendation are perhaps the most crucial component of your application if you are not the most qualified student. You need to develop these relationships and secure these recommenders so that the positive portions of your application, and your fit, talents and determination as a student shine through.

If that was too long to read:
1. Apply anyway.
2. Develop a strong relationship with your recommenders, or at least show them why you are a good student.
3. Do not get hung up on the negative parts of your application.


 

[Adelaide9216]

Really good advice. I'm really surprised to realize that I've applied most of these when I wasn't even considering attending graduate school. 

[TheHessianHistorian]

Every undergraduate student should do this, regardless of whether they think they want to go to grad school or not. I didn't do these things in my first undergraduate degree because I thought there was no way I would ever want to go to graduate school. Turns out it's possible for people's minds to change after a few years out of school! When I ended up deciding I wanted to do a graduate degree, all I had to show was a weak undergraduate degree with a low GPA, no extras, no relationships with professors, etc. I had to go back for another 2 years to pick up a second Bachelor's degree to do it right. Now I'm finally ready to apply to graduate programs.

[basketballfrost]

HOW CAN I STRENGTHEN MY APPLICATION???

After reading a lot of the posts here I became inspired to apply again in the next cycle. I tried twice with no success, but since I am an international student everything can happen and it is extremelly competitive out there. I have great research experience, two first author papers, one of them at science translational medicine. I also have a great graduate GPA 3.83, and GREs 161/159. To top it off I have a lot of honors, scholarships to study abroad, research fellowships, fellowship to attend conferences, and a series of conferences presentations. My only and extremely low pitifal is my undergraduate GPA which is around 3.0, without any chemistry/physics classess. I believe this is the main reason I did not get accepted in the two times I tried.

I would like to know more information on how to stregthen my application to the next round, if you guys have any. To take more classess on chemistry, calculus and physics I would have to extend my masters for another year (have been in my masters for 2 years already). Would that be a great idea? Or can that actually backfires?

My second idea is to also take the GRE subject on biology, chemistry and mathematics. Trying to score into the 90% for bio/chem, and 80% for math.

I am extremelly open to new ideas. I am trying to get into really competitive schools because the research I am trying to do is unfortunately only possible in places like UCSD, Berkeley, Mount Sinai.