Graduate
School:
Winning Strategies For Getting
In, 2nd edition
By Dave G. Mumby, Ph.D.
Published
by Proto Press Publications at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Proto
Press Publications.
All rights reserved
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Contents
1. Truths & Myths About Graduate School
2. What You Need to Know Before Applying to Graduate School
5. Enhancing the Objective Components of Your Application
6. Letters of Recommendation (a.k.a. Reference Letters)
7. The Personal Statement and CV
8. First Impressions Matter Most
9. A Major Step That Most Students Miss
10. Putting It All Together For a Winning Application
11. Financing Your Graduate Studies
Chapter 1
Truths & Myths About Graduate
School
Many students have serious misconceptions about what graduate school involves and about what it takes to be accepted into a good graduate program. Every year, countless students apply to grad school, but most fail to get in. This is not simply because they are beaten out by other applicants who are more academically competent. Most applicants fail to get in because they make costly mistakes during the application process.
Most of them are not aware of their mistakes, of course, and most of those mistakes could easily be avoided. Serious errors of judgment occur because most students are more or less in the dark about how the process of selecting applicants to most graduate programs actually works.
Meanwhile, certain misconceptions prevent untold numbers of other qualified students from giving much serious thought to graduate school. Many of these students mistakenly believe that they do not have a realistic chance of getting in, and often, they think their grades are not good enough. But the truth is that many of them do have a good chance. They are simply unaware of the many ways that one can overcome grades that are less than stellar and still get into graduate school.
Aims of this Book
Most readers of this book are presumed to be undergraduate college or university students who are either currently planning to apply to graduate school or professional school, or who have not yet made that decision but eventually will.
The book is aimed at two kinds of students: The first kind of student has average to above-average grades — grades that are respectable, but that would not be considered excellent or outstanding. For students of most disciplines, I am speaking, generally, of grade-point-averages (GPAs) in the B to B+ range. Most of these students would not be accepted into graduate school unless they did some things to overcome the relative shortcomings in their grades. This book explains what those things are, and it provides clear directions on how to accomplish them.
The second kind of student this book is meant for has very good or excellent grades. For students of most disciplines, this would mean a GPA in the A- to A+ range. Many such students mistakenly think that good grades are all that is needed to get into graduate school. It is sad and unfortunate, although not uncommon, for students to work hard to achieve excellent grades only to make errors of judgment later on when applying to graduate school, and as a result, fail to get into graduate school, altogether, or at least, they do not get into the program they hoped for. Many have assumed for a long time that they would eventually go to graduate school, earn an advanced degree, and go on to have a fabulous career. What a bitter disappointment it is when the rejection letters come and all those plans are derailed.
The cruelest irony is that many students with GPAs in the A range are rejected for admission into graduate programs while other students are accepted into the same programs with grades that are more like B+! Don’t think you can get into graduate school with a B+ average? In fact, thousands of students across North America do it every year. This book explains how it is done, and along the way it dispels some common myths about what is required for successful application to graduate school, particularly those myths concerning the necessity of exceptionally high grades. This book explains how the process of selecting graduate-school applicants really works (in most cases), and what important factors exist beyond grades that determine the success or failure of an application.
(A Note on Grading Scales: There are a variety of grading scales used in North American colleges and universities (e.g., A - F letter grades, percentages, 0.0 - 4.0 scale, and more). The letter-grade scale is used throughout this book for the sake of simplicity and consistency).
Of course, no one can guarantee that you will get into graduate school just by reading this book. But, I can guarantee you this: If you understand the advice in this book, and use good judgment in how you apply it to your own situation, you will greatly improve your chances of being accepted into the graduate school that is right for you. In the end, you will be the one who determines whether you succeed — but I know some ways that you can help yourself.
The information and advice in this book is aimed primarily at undergraduate students, but most of it will also be useful to students who are currently in master’s programs and who expect to eventually apply to a doctoral program at a different university.
Most of the ideas and suggestions in this book apply to the vast majority of programs, departments, faculties, and universities in the United States and Canada. But it is vitally important to realize that not all of the information, opinions, and suggestions will apply in all instances. There are substantial differences among graduate programs, even within a particular field. Not surprisingly, the differences across fields are even greater. Some of the ideas that are discussed may be irrelevant to students in certain disciplines. You will need to be flexible and adapt your specific actions to situations as they arise.
This book is expressly aimed at students who are thinking of pursuing a graduate degree in some discipline within the sciences, social sciences, or humanities; students who are applying to a program within fine arts will also find much useful information in these pages. This book will also be highly useful to anyone thinking of advanced training toward a professional career, such as in medicine or law; however, it will be important for those readers to also go beyond the advice and information in this book, because professional school is different enough from graduate school that it really is a different animal in some important ways. (Although there is no clear agreement on how to demarcate areas of professional study, the following nineteen disciplines are the dominant ones: architecture, business, dentistry, education, engineering, forestry, journalism, law, library science, medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, physical therapy, public health, social work, theology, and veterinary medicine).
This book is not intended to be the sole resource for any student who is applying to graduate or professional school. Rather, its purpose is to acquaint students in most disciplines with the kinds of things they should know and expect to encounter when applying to almost any advanced-degree program. For the most part, therefore, this book deals mostly with commonalities that exist across most graduate programs in most fields. There are a few good books and other publications that offer more specific information and advice to students in certain fields but, unfortunately, the list is not long. Aside from professional programs in business, law, and medicine, not many fields are covered.
Do Not Wait — Start Preparing Early
Do not wait until you are in your senior year to begin taking the steps outlined in this book. Some of the recommended steps take a good deal of time to implement. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to improve your chances of getting into graduate school. Conversely, the sooner you begin, the easier it will be. But don’t panic if you discover that you do not have enough time to take advantage of all of the strategies described in this book. There are a great many things that you can do “at the last minute” to improve your chances.
The next few chapters will set the record straight on what graduate study is all about, and what it takes to get into graduate or professional school and to earn an advanced degree. If you have weak grades and no notable and relevant accomplishments, then you might decide after reading this book that you do not have a realistic chance of getting into graduate school this year no matter what you do. Consider it a blessing that you figured this out before you wasted your time and money, and experienced much anguish and esteem-deflation. If you are serious about getting into graduate school, then you have plenty of time to take advantage of the advice in this book and prepare for another round of applications next year.
You May Be More Qualified Than You Think
Every year, thousands of students apply to graduate schools in North America. Most of them apply to more than one school, and those who are serious in their desire to get into graduate school are eventually accepted into a program, somewhere. For many, the decision to go to graduate school and obtain an advanced degree has been part of their education and career plans since they first entered college or university. For those individuals, the advanced degree is an absolute prerequisite for their career goals. For others, the decision to go to graduate school came only after they had been in college or university for a few years and began to question how valuable their undergraduate degree would be when they finally entered the job market.
Now, consider the greatest of the common misconceptions about graduate school — the idea that you must have outstanding undergraduate grades to get into graduate school and to succeed once you are there. Do you believe this? Most people do, but it’s simply not true! Although outstanding grades certainly help your chances of getting into graduate school, there are ways to get in even if you do not have consistently excellent grades. This book explains it all.
The methods of learning and evaluation are so different from those of undergraduate school that some students’ undergraduate GPA can be a rather poor predictor of their future performance in graduate school. Although there have been studies that found significant correlations between undergraduate GPA and graduate school success in some disciplines, these analyses typically involved very large groups of students, and many graduate-program faculty members would argue that the correlation is not so apparent when considering only the students in their own program. Even in disciplines in which there are thought to be stronger relations between undergraduate grades and graduate school success, no one would deny that there are frequent exceptions, and almost any graduate-program faculty member knows of cases in which students with less-than-stellar undergraduate grades turned out to be among the best graduate students.
There are graduate programs in which applicants are rejected more or less automatically if their grades are below some absurdly high minimum. Obviously, you would need higher grades to get into one of the most competitive programs in North America than to get into one of the hundreds of less competitive programs. But as you will soon discover, in the majority of schools and disciplines, the acceptance and rejection of graduate-school applicants is far from being an automatic process based entirely on grades.
Before we go any further, it’s important that we clarify something: Although I have been emphasizing that students can get into graduate school without an outstanding undergraduate GPA, it definitely is true that in most graduate programs, the quality of undergraduate grades is an important criterion for evaluating applicants. What many students fail to realize, however, is that this is only one of the important criteria, and that a shortcoming in terms of undergraduate GPA can often be compensated for by excellent performance on some of the other important criteria.
It is equally important to emphasize here what I mean when referring to grades that are not outstanding, but still good enough to get into graduate school: In most areas of study, this includes students with a GPA between B-minus and B-plus. Very few programs in any discipline would accept applicants with a GPA lower than B-minus, no matter what other strengths such an applicant possessed, although there may be rare exceptions in some disciplines.
The relative importance of undergraduate grades varies widely across programs within a particular field, depending on the prestige or competitiveness of the program. Not surprisingly, the differences across disciplines are even greater. Some programs have minimum entry requirements with respect to undergraduate GPA, but these are usually not very high, and few applicants are weeded out because their grades are too low. Moreover, these minimum-requirement rules are not always written in stone.
“Grad school? Me? Are You Kidding?”
You hear the same thing time after time. If you ask undergraduate university or college students whether they plan to go to graduate school and earn an advanced degree (e.g., master’s, doctorate), they often reply with something like, “I’d like to, but I can’t afford to spend another three to five more years in school. I value my education, but I don’t find what I’m studying so interesting that I would want to delve into it any deeper. I just want to get my bachelor’s degree and get a job. Besides, my grades aren’t good enough to get into grad school.”
This kind of response is typical. It also reflects some of the most common misconceptions and misunderstandings about graduate school. Consider the first part of the response — the part about not being able to afford to stay in school. Many students have the misconception that going to graduate school would mean struggling to make financial ends meet the same way that they did when they were undergraduates. It is true that in some cases there can be considerable expense associated with years of graduate study. But, the truth is also that there are also many more ways for graduate students to get the money they need than there are for undergraduate students. This topic is discussed in more detail in Chapter 11 – Financing Graduate School. For now, the important thing for you to realize is that most graduate students are able to maintain a good income while working toward an advanced degree. In fact, most graduate students are paid to go to school! The money may be a stipend from a bursary, scholarship, or fellowship, or salary for teaching assistantships or research assistantships, or even a straightforward salary arrangement in which the graduate student receives a stipend from the graduate supervisor’s research or teaching grants. Financial hardship may be a typical part of being an undergraduate, but it is less common for a graduate student.
A typical graduate student’s income will not lead to great riches, but it is usually enough to pay tuition and living expenses (rent, groceries, a trip home during holidays, etc.). And that sure beats having to take out a student loan or work at a part-time job in order to get by while you further your education. Many graduate students don’t have to look for a summer job every year because they are “employed” all year round. Not all graduate students are able to avoid taking a loan, but most can and do get by without borrowing money.
Now consider the second part of the typical student’s response — the part about not being sufficiently interested in one’s undergraduate specialization or major to want to pursue graduate studies. The truth is that graduate school is more rewarding than many people think. Most students find graduate studies to be infinitely more interesting than undergraduate studies. Few undergraduates understand what really happens in graduate school, because no one ever explains it to them.
A common misconception about graduate school is that there is considerable focus on taking classes where you delve deeply into a narrow range of subject matter in order to become an expert or specialist. In fact, course work and in-class testing are relatively minor parts of many graduate programs, especially beyond the master’s level. Instead, research and skills development are usually the focus, especially once you are past the master’s level. You will be too busy learning useful things in graduate school to sit in a classroom for hours each day.
Most undergraduate degree programs are aimed at providing students with a broad understanding of a discipline and the career options that are available within that particular field, but some of them do relatively little to actually train you for a great career. Graduate programs, on the other hand, are aimed at training and developing independent specialists, researchers, scholars, professionals, etc.
It may be true that an advanced degree is not realistically within reach of every student, but it is within reach of tens of thousands of students who mistakenly think that they are not even qualified to try. Graduate school might not be the right choice for everyone, but you owe it to yourself to at least give it some consideration.
A Special Message for Students with Excellent Grades
Even if you have an outstanding GPA and the highest grades in your graduating class, you cannot afford to be complacent or overconfident in your approach to graduate school applications. Your outstanding grades are no guarantee that you will get into graduate school.
Some students with top grades fail to get into graduate school because they have no idea what they are doing when they apply. They don’t really understand what graduate admission committees are looking for in an applicant, so they unwittingly sabotage their own chances by revealing their naiveté or by not dealing properly with certain parts of the application. By the time you are finished reading this book, you will understand why you need more than good grades in order to get into the graduate program you want. As you will see, it comes down to this: Graduate program admission committees aim to accept the best people, not necessarily the best credentials.
Chapter 2
What You Need to Know Before Applying
to Graduate School
Successfully navigating the graduate-school application process involves more than just preparing an application that will beat the competition. There are a number of critical decisions to make, such as, which programs to apply to, and if the selected programs involve a research thesis, who to request as a graduate supervisor. Many students are completely in the dark about how to go about making such choices, and some do not even realize how significant these decisions are to the likelihood they will get what they want out of graduate school.
This chapter focuses on a few important things that students need to be aware of before they begin the process of applying to graduate school. For example, it is necessary to have a decent understanding of what graduate studies in your discipline involves before you can plan an effective strategy for getting into the right graduate program, or for succeeding once you are there. You also need to understand the process by which graduate-school applicants are actually evaluated, and how decisions are ultimately made about who gets in and who does not. Most of the mistakes that students make when applying to graduate school stem from not understanding how or why the successful applicants are selected, or why the unsuccessful ones are rejected. This chapter explains how the applicant evaluation and selection processes work at most graduate schools.
Many students have questions about what goes into a graduate-school application, and how important the various components are in determining whether or not the application is successful. This chapter answers many of those questions. At the same time, it dispels some common misconceptions about what the people who make the decisions are looking for in applicants.
Find Out What Graduate School Is All About
Before you decide to apply to graduate school, you need to have a good understanding of what graduate studies in your field of interest involves, and what kinds of career options might be available to those who earn a masters or Ph.D. Too many students apply to graduate school without really understanding how it differs from undergraduate studies, even though they might believe they actually have a good understanding. This lack of insight can be costly. It can foil an application to graduate school in many different ways, and can keep capable students from getting in, altogether. For example, many students fail to realize how specialized their studies will be in graduate school, and they do not really know what kinds of expertise they want. Graduate-school applicants who do not have a sound career objective will usually have a hard time justifying why they are applying to particular graduate schools and not others.
Even among the successful applicants, those who are not informed about what to expect often flounder during their first months in graduate school. Some quit in despair without finishing – unable to adjust to a completely different set of conditions for learning, performance, and evaluation than what they have become used to. For example, many successful applicants enter graduate school expecting to mainly be taking more difficult courses. What they soon discover is that this is one of the least significant differences between undergraduate school and graduate school.
Some of the differences that exist among graduate programs in various fields are plain to see. For example, in many masters programs that do not involve a research thesis, the students admitted in any given year work through a particular curriculum in lockstep with each other, and individual faculty members do little or no direct supervision of individual students. By contrast, in most fields, graduate work at the doctoral level is conducted under the supervision of an individual faculty member. The same is true for master’s programs in some fields, especially if a research thesis is involved. There may be some overlap in the courses that are taken by different students within the same program, but there is also significant variety in the courses that different students take, and the kinds of mentoring they receive from the faculty members who serves as their respective supervisors.
The next few sections discuss some of the more notable aspects of graduate school, and the manner by which applicants are selected, at least for most programs, and in most fields of study. It is necessary to treat these topics in a general way, because the finer details of a typical graduate-school experience can vary from one discipline to another. My goal is to draw your attention to certain things that you need to keep in mind throughout the process of applying to graduate school.
While the following sections deal with commonalities that can be found among graduate programs in most fields, every program is in some way unique and will differ from others in terms of the admissions requirements, methods of evaluating applicants, or some other key aspect of the program. Accordingly, it warrants repeating here that you may need to be flexible in how you apply the general information and advice given in this book to particular graduate programs.
Interpersonal and Work Relationships
One major difference between undergraduate and graduate school is the nature of the interpersonal and work relationships that students have with faculty members, and with student peers. In graduate school, you may need to work closely and cooperatively with others – with other students, or with one or more professors, for example – and your overall success may depend on how good you are at working with others. You will be around certain other students and professors on an almost daily basis, and for a few years. You will likely get to know some of the faculty members well enough to be on a first-name basis with them. Even the ways in which you deal with secretaries and other university staff might be different – probably friendlier – than when you were an undergraduate.
There may be a significant amount of independent work involved in earning a master’s or Ph.D., but it is not generally possible to avoid certain situations in which good interpersonal skills are essential. In graduate school, you will be part of a special community, and how you fare will depend to some extent on how well you get along with others. You will be highly visible much of the time, unlike most undergraduate students who may feel more or less anonymous among the crowd in large classes, without ever having significant contact with any of their professors. In graduate school, certain professors and other graduate students might get to know you rather well, and they will develop opinions about your personality and character based on the kinds of interactions they have with you. It is difficult to blend into the background when you are a graduate student, so the social environment of graduate school favors people who are fair and reasonable, and who get along with most other people in most situations. Admissions committees and graduate program faculty members want to fill their graduate programs with students who fit this bill.
It’s Not Enough To Be Smart
Contrary to the way some people think it should work, candidate selection by most are not based on determining which applicant deserves it the most. This can be a difficult reality to accept for many students, especially those who worked hard throughout their undergraduate years in order to get high grades, expecting that some just reward must eventually come from all the effort and achievement. The expectation seems reasonable, since that is how most people get into college or university in the first place. When it comes to graduate school, however, especially at the Ph.D. level, it no longer works that way. Applying to graduate school is a lot like applying for a job. An employer’s decisions about whom to hire are typically based on a number of factors, which include more than just the applicants’ qualifications.
When it comes to getting into graduate school, it is simply not enough to be smart, or to be good at taking exams and writing essays. This fact is largely unappreciated by the majority of applicants, who pay little or no attention to how they come across as a person to those who will be making decisions about their application. Like it or not, your interpersonal skills will be on display at several different points during the application process. The fate of your application will depend largely on how these skills are perceived. This point is extremely important, and it will be repeated several times throughout the remainder of this book.
Most importantly, your chances of being successful in the long-term – even after you get your Ph.D. – will depend to a significant extent on whether certain people you meet at graduate school like you or not. It is a frequent occurrence during most academic careers, for example, to come into professional contact, in any of a number of ways, with one’s former graduate-school peers. The other person can sometimes be in a position to either help you with something or not, or they could either put in a good word for you or discredit your character. This kind of situation arises more often than you might expect. For at least a few years after receiving a Ph.D., people are extremely dependent on positive references from faculty members who knew them when they were in graduate school. Just as you need effective letters of reference from the right people in order to get into graduate school, you will also need those kinds of references when you look for a job, after graduate school. Most employers will be just as interested in your ability to get along with other employees as in the specific skills or knowledge you possess.
Get Your Information From the Right Sources
One of the main reasons why there is such a great deal of misinformation about graduate school is because students tend to prefer talking with each other, instead of talking with someone who actually knows what graduate school is like, or what is needed to get in. Students tend to pass along stories they hear about how hard it is to get into such-and-such a school, how high the GPA must be, etc. There is often little or no truth to the received wisdom. Still, most students readily believe the stories they hear, because the stories make sense to them. The stories often make sense only because the student does not really understand what matters to the people who make the decisions. All too often, a student will rely on his or her own mistaken assumptions, or on rumors and misconceptions they hear repeated by other equally uninformed students and friends.
Students need the right answers, but in order to get them, they need to know what questions to ask in the first place. This is something a professor or an academic advisor can help with. If you are serious about graduate school, you need to talk to these ‘insiders.’
Professors: There are many general things that just about any professor will be able to tell you about graduate school. For reasons that remain a mystery, however, most students are reluctant to visit professors outside of class, and when they do, it is almost always to deal with coursework. Professors can be a source of good educational or career advice, and some even enjoy talking with students about such things. Most professors realize there is an information gap that prevents students from finding out what is really involved in graduate school, until they get there. Accordingly, some want to be helpful. Granted, this is not the case for all professors. In most cases, it is only appropriate for a student to ask a professor to spend valuable time discussing these matters if the two of them already have a good rapport.
Prepare your questions in advance. Ask about the types of financial support graduate students typically receive. Ask about the courses they have to take, the research requirements, and the process of preparing and defending a thesis. Some of the answers will reflect the kinds of written-in-stone policies that are part of nearly all programs in a particular field, whereas some others will merely reflect common practices that one would find in most programs. Still others may reflect how an individual professor tends to deal with his or her own graduate students. Ask about which things are fairly standard across graduate programs in your field. It is at this point that most students first begin to understand that not all graduate programs in their field of interest are alike.
Academic Advisors: You can also get a lot of information about graduate school from an academic advisor at your current school. This might seem like an obvious way to find help, but for some mysterious reason, the existence and whereabouts of these important resource people are often unknown to students. Find out where to go in your academic department, or on your campus, for this type of advice and guidance. These people often know a lot about the ins-and-outs of graduate or professional school.
Be careful, however, not to rely too much on the advice about graduate school of an academic advisor who has never actually been a faculty member within a graduate program. Some academic advisors at smaller colleges may be excellent at guiding students through their undergraduate program, yet they lack the firsthand experience necessary to help students with more than the most-obvious aspects of a graduate-school application. As a consequence, these well-intentioned academic advisors often possess, and perpetuate, common misconceptions about graduate school, and about how the process of selecting applicants generally works.
On the other hand, some academic advisors are professors who have firsthand experience with what it is like to be a graduate student, and who may even currently participate in one or more graduate programs. If that is the case for an academic advisor near you, then be sure to glean as much insight and advice from that person as you can.
Graduate Program Directors: If you currently attend a university that has a graduate program in your field of interest, or if there is one nearby, make an appointment to meet with the Graduate Program Director (GPD). This person is usually one of the faculty members in the department, and his or her role as GPD is to coordinate the administration of various aspects of the graduate program (or programs). The GPD should be willing to answer your specific questions about what to expect in their program, but this is not really a person to go to with general questions about graduate school. Make sure you already have a good idea of what is generally involved in graduate studies in your field. Even if you are not planning to apply to the graduate program at your current school, meeting with the GPD and asking the right questions – as though you are actually considering applying – can yield some insights and advice that turn out to be valuable no matter what schools you do end up applying to.
The Internet: There are a lot of places on the Internet where one can find advice on matters pertaining to graduate school. As the author of one of the first few books ever published on the subject of applying successfully to graduate school, in 1997, I am gratified to see that so many of the insights and so much of the advice I wrote about in that first edition of Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting In, have now been repeated and paraphrased on a tremendous number of websites (even plagiarized on a few), and in a handful of half-decent books that have been published by others, in recent years.
There is, however, a problem with using the Internet to do your research on these topics: The information is spread all over the place, with little bits here and there, mixed in with lots of advertising, which is needed to pay for the website and make it profitable to the people who maintain it.
Graduate Students: Another excellent way to find out about graduate studies in your field is to talk with graduate students. Of course, this might not be easy if your school does not offer a graduate program in your field, but there are ways to get around that with email, online discussion groups, or blogs.
In many respects, current graduate students are the real experts about certain things. Do not assume that the things you see graduate students doing in the capacity of teaching assistant for one of your professor’s courses indicates how they spend most of their time, or what major responsibilities or concerns they have. Chances are that you can find a graduate student who is willing to set you straight on several points about graduate school – things you might not already be aware of. Their firsthand accounts may turn out to be extremely helpful and important to you. Because they are involved in graduate studies right now, they may be more acutely aware of certain aspects of what it is currently like to be a graduate student than are the professors who were graduate students many years ago.
Ask these graduate students what a typical day is like for them. How much time do they spend in classes, reading, writing, or conducting research? Ask them about other aspects of the graduate-student lifestyle. What do they like about it? What do they dislike? Why are they doing it?
Talk to more than one or two students if you can, because each of them will have experiences that are somewhat different. The commonalities among their accounts probably reflect things that would pertain to almost any graduate student in the same program, or in similar programs at other schools. Listen closely to stories about how graduate school turned out to be very different from what the student expected. Be careful, however, not to base your expectations of graduate school on a few negative stories that you are bound to get if you talk to a lot of graduate students. Many students will grumble about one or another unpleasant experience they have while in graduate school, but these stories are usually related to the specific circumstances of the student, rather than being a common experience shared by the majority of them. You need to filter out these anecdotes, and focus on the general accounts.
Keep in mind that the purpose of talking with a graduate student is to get a better idea of what life as a graduate student is like. It is not to get advice on how to make a successful application to graduate school. Ironically, graduate students do not always give expert advice on how to get into graduate school. In fact, most students who get into graduate school probably do not know the real reasons why!
Advice From Graduate Students: Be Careful About What You Assume They Know
One morning I met a student who had some routine questions about her graduate-school applications. Just a few questions that her “sister didn’t know all the answers to.” That’s nice, I thought – sounds like she has a sister with some insight who can help her craft a successful application. Turns out that her sister has a Master’s degree in History, and this means, according to the student, that her sister knows what it takes to get into graduate school.
This is a common version of a situation I often see, in which students are inadvertently misled about the relative importance of certain factors when choosing graduate programs or trying to get accepted into one. Friends or relatives with good intentions may want to help the student by offering advice they believe to be sound. Often, however, the advice is either off the mark or significantly incomplete, although neither the person offering the advice or the one receiving it is aware.
The greatest problem is often that the students in need of guidance decide they are getting all that is needed, and thus they fail to seek insight and advice from people who are qualified to give it, such as, an academic advisor, a university professor, or a graduate program director. As a result, the students are armed with incomplete or misleading advice, which is then an impediment to finding the right program or to putting together a successful application.
But, can someone who has been to graduate school themselves really be in the dark about how to choose a program, or how to write a good personal statement, how to solicit letters of recommendation and from whom, or about any of the other key aspects of the grad school application process? After all, didn’t they need to do all those things properly in order to get into graduate school?
On the surface, it seems logical to assume that a current or former graduate student must have some valuable insights. The truth is that graduate students seldom know the real reasons why they themselves were successful while other applicants failed to get into the same program.
Once, for the purpose of demonstrating this point, I informally surveyed a group of second-year master’s students in Psychology, to find out what they believed to be the main reasons they were successful in getting accepted into their current graduate program. Then, I asked their graduate advisors (a.k.a. graduate supervisors) why the students were actually accepted. Okay, it was a really small group – only five students and their graduate advisors participated in my informal survey – but it was clear that, for this group at least, there was not much correspondence between the graduate students’ beliefs about why they were accepted and the actual reasons they were accepted.
I asked my own graduate students why they thought I agreed to take them on, and they, too, were wrong about much of it. For instance, most tended to overestimate the importance of their undergraduate GPA and the degree of interest they showed in my previous work. They all grossly underestimated the importance of their letters of recommendation, and they were also clueless as to just how those letters helped me make my decisions. None of them realized that the most useful comments one can make in a letter of recommendation for a graduate-school applicant often pertain more to the applicant’s character than to his or her abilities or accomplishments (most indicators of ability and accomplishment can be discerned from other parts of the application).
It isn’t really that surprising that these graduate students were more-or-less clueless about why they were accepted. After all, at no point is this ever explained to a graduate student. The wonderful letter that informs the student that the application was successful does not say why (just as a reject-letter usually will not say why the student was rejected). After getting in, successful applicants don’t inquire about why they were successful, either. It’s the furthest thing from their mind as they are typically excited about having gotten in, and focused on what lies ahead.
So, don’t assume that a graduate student can give you expert advice about what matters most when it comes to your graduate school applications. Talk to an academic advisor or a graduate program director in your field of interest. They should be able to set you straight.
Dealing With Conflicting Advice
What about conflicting advice from different people? Opinions vary a great deal among professors, even those within the same department who do similar research or teaching. Your professors are not all the same, and none of them is perfect. Even among those who do know what they are talking about, professors often differ in their opinions about what is important for success in graduate school, or in a particular career afterwards. Even when two or more professors agree on a list of attributes that a good graduate student should possess, they may differ in how much emphasis each of them puts on particular attributes. It is important, therefore, that you seek advice and insight from several people.
You cannot just believe everything you hear, however, or you will be unable to discriminate between correct insights and serious misconceptions. Consider the source of any advice you receive. Are you talking to people who have been around for long enough to know how things work, both in their own department and in departments at different schools? Is it likely that they have offered similar advice in the past, and witnessed the outcome? Have they ever been, or are they currently, involved in graduate training and supervision?
Are You Right for Graduate School?
For most students thinking about graduate school, there are many unanswered questions about what it takes to get in, what it takes to succeed once there, and whether they will actually enjoy being a graduate student. There is no standard set of circumstances that all graduate students face, and many factors go in to determining the outcomes for any individual. It is impossible to predict how things will turn out if you are accepted into a graduate program. Still, there are certain general requirements that are essential for success in graduate school, regardless of the particular discipline, and you should consider them before deciding whether graduate school is the right choice for you.
You need to consider more than just your academic suitability, that is, how capable you are of studying hard and mastering new information and skills. You also have to consider whether your personality is right for graduate school. The key here is to be honest with yourself. If you are thinking about going to graduate school because you do not know what else to do, then you should figure out what you want to do with your life before you apply to graduate school.
Are you self-motivated and ambitious? As a graduate student, you will assume a greater responsibility for directing your education and training than you did as an undergraduate. Success requires a great deal more drive and determination than most people assume before they go through it. Graduate school is a full-time occupation for the vast majority of students working toward a Ph.D. – part-time enrolment is not an option in most good-quality programs. You will not simply be fed information you must learn. You will have to seek much of the relevant knowledge on your own. You will teach, train, and supervise yourself in graduate school. The faculty members, including your graduate supervisor if you have one, are there mostly to keep you on track, to facilitate your self-education, and serve as resources for you to use for knowledge and advice.
Depending on your field, you might have to do a tremendous amount of reading from scholarly books and journals. No one will be evaluating your acquisition of new knowledge on a frequent or regular basis. That will be your responsibility. No one will be checking to make sure you are doing this, so you will need to have self-discipline. From time to time you will need to demonstrate your knowledge, and your performance will be judged, but it is up to you to make sure you are ready. No one is going to turn you into some kind of expert. You will need to do it. It takes years to get a Ph.D., and you are not guaranteed to have an easy time finding a job once you are done. How much are you willing to sacrifice for a Ph.D.?
Do you have enough self-confidence? Success in graduate school requires one to rise above the ‘above-average’, to achieve and maintain excellent performance over a period of years. Many people can meet the kinds of challenges that stand in the way of success in graduate school, but those who have a tendency to shy away from challenges in general are likely to achieve only mediocre success in graduate school, at best.
One stereotype of a high academic achiever is that of the shy, awkward, and absent-minded professor – timid, quiet, and somewhat withdrawn from the ‘real world’ and from most other people. The reality is, however, that people who are more confident, outgoing, and sociable are more likely to rise to the challenges of graduate school. For instance, a certain amount of public speaking will be required of anyone in graduate school, and it may be a regular aspect of training in some disciplines. You will occasionally have to occupy center stage in seminars as well as in more formal situations, such as when presenting your work to an audience of other students and faculty members. You will be expected to speak out in graduate classes to express your ideas and to challenge those of others. Your duties might include giving undergraduate lectures or directing laboratories. You may have to present oral proposals for your thesis or dissertation work before you start, and also present and defend the final work in a public forum after you are done.
Are you able to cope with unexpected and disappointing setbacks? Many paths can lead to a Ph.D., but few if any of them are completely smooth. Along the way, most people experience at least a few bumps. Unanticipated events occur that can bear on the progress of a student’s thesis research, for example. A research project might not unfold as originally planned, or interpersonal relations with ones graduate advisor might prove to be difficult or unpleasant due to factors beyond your control. There will be setbacks and disappointments, but it is impossible to know in advance how many or how serious they will be. Just count on there being times when you wonder whether it’s worth all the time, trouble, and effort to get that degree. Most graduate students will report having such thoughts at least occasionally, and some decide to quit before finishing. Are you the kind who perseveres when things don’t work out as you planned or hoped? Or do you tend to give-up or break-down emotionally when challenged by factors and outcomes that you cannot control?
Do you have superior communication skills? Graduate students in all disciplines spend a great deal of time and effort organizing and expressing ideas and facts in ways that reflect clear and original thinking. This is done over and over again in most graduate programs, and it usually involves both written and oral formats. No matter how many other things you have going for you, it is highly likely you will struggle to succeed in graduate school if you have only mediocre writing abilities, or if you are terrible at public speaking. You do not have to be an expert at either one, and a lot of practice and training at both of these skills takes place in graduate school. But, you need to be far better than average when the time comes for applying to graduate school. In fact, you are unlikely to get in if you cannot demonstrate superior communication skills. It is essential to success in any field.
Terminal Master’s Degree
There is an important distinction between terminal and nonterminal master’s programs. A nonterminal master’s degree usually precedes entry into a doctoral program (although in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of doctoral programs that do not require a master’s degree). By contrast, terminal programs specifically train people for occupations that require only a master’s degree. Therefore, you need at least a general idea of your career objectives in order to choose between a terminal and nonterminal master’s program. You will probably choose a nonterminal master’s program, unless you know for sure that you will not want to pursue a doctorate, later on.
Understand How the Applicant Selection Process Works
The majority of graduate-school applicants have a major impediment that they do not even know they have: They do not understand how the successful applicants are chosen. In fact, they have no idea what is really going on with their application after they submit it. Without knowing how the selection process works, it is easy to make mistakes without realizing that you are doing so.
There are several criteria in addition to grades that determine the success or failure of a graduate or professional school application. In order to take advantage of these criteria and make up for a shortcoming in grades, it is important to know what goes into your application and to understand how the selection process generally works. Once you do, some of the things you can do to improve your own chances of success will be obvious. Knowledge is power, and ignorance can be fatal. Be careful not to overestimate the accuracy of your current understanding of the selection process. Even students who are confident that they understand how their application will be evaluated are usually wrong in some important ways.
Most universities have a Faculty or a School of Graduate Studies that plays a role in the administration of certain aspects of all departmental graduate programs at that institution. Often the Faculty or School of Graduate Studies plays only a minor role in the selection process beyond establishing minimum grade requirements or some other standards that apply to all of the graduate programs. The actual selection of applicants is likely to be done by faculty members in the specific department to which you are applying. Most programs have an admissions committee (often also referred to as a selection committee) consisting of a few faculty members who meet each year after the application deadline to pore over the pile of applications.
Most programs also have a director – the Graduate Program Director (GPD) – who will also be on the admissions committee. Most departments appoint their own admissions committee, and the composition of the group, as well as policies and procedures for making selections, will vary from one program to another. A general aim of most admissions committees is to provide a rating of each of the applicants and to ultimately make the decision of who is acceptable for the program. This process usually involves ranking the applicants on the basis of their overall application package, and eliminating some of the lower ranking applicants from the competition. In some programs, especially those in which students do not, strictly speaking, study and train under the supervision of a single faculty member, the admissions committee makes the final decision of whether to accept or reject an applicant.
In most doctoral programs, and in master’s programs that have a research thesis, students do their work under the supervision of a sponsoring faculty member. For the remainder of this book, that individual faculty member who would serve as your mentor, advisor, and supervisor during your graduate studies will be referred to as the “prospective supervisor.” For graduate programs in which each student has a faculty member supervising their work, the admissions committee plays a relatively minor role in deciding whether individual applicants will be accepted or rejected. To be accepted into most thesis-based graduate program, an applicant must somehow convince the prospective graduate supervisor to make a long-term commitment. The prospective supervisors are the ones who ultimately decide who is accepted and who is not!
Consider that an individual professor might have several hopeful students applying each year to do graduate studies under his or her supervision, and from among that group, he or she might choose one or two ... or perhaps none. A faculty member cannot be forced to be the graduate supervisor for any particular applicant, and in most programs, a student cannot be accepted without a consenting graduate supervisor. Generally speaking, therefore, if the faculty member whom you request to have as your supervisor does not accept you, you do not get into the program. The admissions committee will generally ‘rubber-stamp’ whatever decision the prospective graduate supervisor makes.