Graduate School

As I checked my email before turning in after another night of working on my senior thesis, I skim down the unread messages deciding which ones I really want to mess with tonight when my eye catches it. The familiar thrill begins to stir of seeing an unread message from a graduate school. Am I accepted? Did I forget to send them something? Did my transcripts get lost in the mail? Why isn’t my computer loading faster? The process to applying to graduate school is exciting but also very exhausting, because it’s different for every school you will apply to. I might not know much, but my experience with the graduate school application process can be summed up in two words: start early, even though that contradicts every college student’s mantra.

The GRE

Take the test early even if you aren’t sure you want to go to graduate school. The GRE is not required by all programs, but taking it will increase the amount of schools you will be eligible to apply to. Furthermore, some schools do not even require a specific score on your GRE; they just require that you take it. If you don’t decide to do graduate school immediately after college, your GRE scores are valid for about 5 years after the test, saving you time, money and stress in the future.

Regardless, your GRE will not be an enthralling experience, because after all it is still a test. You will be tested in three basic ways—quantitative, verbal, and analytical reasoning. It’s a good idea to prepare you for the test beforehand. If you are not a Math major, there are probably some concepts from your Algebra 1 class that you haven’t seen in the past 6-8 years. Likewise, even if you are an English major, there will be some words in the verbal reasoning section that you have never seen and probably will never see ever again, but they felt it necessary to determine your acceptance into grad school. Prepare, but don’t study word lists too closely. Who cares if you never use the word recrudescence again? (I know what you're thinking, I looked it up too.) The CDC has a lot of information about the GRE, and other Graduate school tests at http://www.ashland.edu/career/links.html#GraduateTesting.

Applying to Grad School

Make lists of all application materials and post them on your wall. Each grad school you apply to may require the following items: letter of intent/statement of goals in their specific format, GRE scores (which we covered above), resume, application for admission, application for a graduate assistantship possession, an interview, transcripts (either two copies sent to the graduate school office or one sent to the graduate school office and one sent to the graduate program office), letters of recommendation attached to their recommendation form, etc. Before you know it you will not be able to remember what materials for you sent to which school, or worse confuse the Ashland University registrar with a million transcript request forms.

Since there is no way you can do them one application at a time without severely angering your reference writers, START EARLY and learn to multitask. If lists work for you, use them. If you must lock yourself in the library until your specially tailored letters of intent is finished, do it! Then visit the CDC to get it critiqued before you send it. Set your goal to have all the information into your schools at least 3 weeks early. This includes your reference writers; they’re busy people too. Give them plenty of time and make it easier for them by providing them with your statement of intent and resume.

The wait

Some graduate schools have rolling admission, and you will hear back from them relatively quickly. Others you will have to drive an hour for a ten minute interview, and then have to wait some more. Still others won’t even look at your application until they received all other applications. There’s not much you can do but just wait and perhaps pick up a new hobby now that you have so much free time on your hands since your grad school applications are done. Eventually, you will get that email or letter saying you’ve been accepted. The money you spent in application fees and on transcripts and the time you spend perfecting personal statements and resumes will seem somehow justified because you are now a graduate student.