Your Tips for Future Applicants

[NervousNellie]

THIS. I went to an information session at a school, and I was surprised at the sheer inanity of the questions being asked. "What if I'm ordering transcripts from a school I went to abroad? Do I have to get those translated?" and "How long should my statement of purpose be?" and "What if my rec letter writer isn't submitting online? Is there a special form or something I have to give him?" I kept thinking, "C'mon people - you can figure out all this stuff on your own time, can't you?"

I asked questions about thesis committees, publishing, availability of elective classes at the general university - stuff about the SCHOOL, not just the application. The grad coordinator and the head of the grad program BOTH came up and introduced themselves to me afterward and actually said, "We never had anyone ask those questions before."

Remains to be seen if it makes any difference in my application, but it sure seemed to make an impression on them at the time.

Well, I wrote the tip, but it came from botching two information sessions myself.

If only I had realized. It took me the first couple of tries to even figure out the purpose of the information sessions. Then it hit me: they are to give admissions staff faces to put with names.

[hubris]

Yeah, my spreadsheet came in hella handy. Not only does it have a column for every item in the path toward application completion, but i use it to jot down notes about research groups of interest, professors I contacted, dates I ordered transcripts, department contact information, etc. Plus, being able to check something off when you make progress is a nice little reinforcement.

Double that. It always helps to have date(s) handy just in case.

[Lantern]

1. Start early...and if you think you're starting early, you're probably starting late.

2. Visit schools if at all possible. Meet with professors, tour the campus, check out the town.

3. Don't use the official deadline as your deadline. Make a deadline for yourself AT LEAST one week before the actual deadline so that if their website is down, or something crazy happens you didn't blow all your prep work for nothing.

I have yet to see if I get in anywhere, so I only posted advice that I think is really essential, and fits for all disciplines. If anything I actually did works, maybe I will have more suggestions later!

[alison21]

Hi all

 

Can I just ask, how much time would be required to prepare for the GRE if one is a full-time working professional? Guessing a few months at the minimum, since the only time available for prep will be outside of working hours and on weekends? Thanks in advance!

[GCool]

Hi all

 

Can I just ask, how much time would be required to prepare for the GRE if one is a full-time working professional? Guessing a few months at the minimum, since the only time available for prep will be outside of working hours and on weekends? Thanks in advance!

 

 

Two things:

 

1. The last post in this thread is from 2010.

2. I'm currently studying for the GRE, and I have a plan together to be ready by December 15th ( I want to take it before Christmas). It's honestly not that hard. I started last week, so that'd be about 6 weeks. It takes more or less time for certain people to feel comfortable with the material--but then again, I'd never ask the question "how long does it take to study" for that exact reason, so I'm not sure what sort of answer you're looking for.

Edited November 6, 2014 by GCool