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Graduate School

Is Graduate School Right For You?

Evaluate your strengths

The first step is to make an honest evaluation of your strengths, both intellectually and in terms of personality
  • What do you enjoy doing and why?
  • Are you intellectually curious?
  • Do you succeed through hard work and attention to detail?
  • Do you enjoy arguing about ideas?

Qualities for success in graduate school

  • Intelligence
  • Initiative
  • Self-discipline
  • Strong motivation
  • Persistence
  • Ability to establish good working relationships

Evaluate your career objectives

  • What work do you hope to do?
  • What are your chances of success?
  • What are your abilities and interests?

Deciding to go to graduate school because you do not know what else to do, and spending years and thousands of dollars is not a good idea. It is too much work and too hard to keep going if you aren't really interested. If you don't have a clear idea, wait until you do.

Questions to ask yourself

  • What are my career goals?
  • Can I achieve my goals with a Master's or do I need a Doctorate?
  • Am I interested enough in a the subject to stay with it for two or three or six years?
  • Do I have the energy and commitment to work hard for as long as it takes?
  • Can I take the pressure?
  • Can I find the money to pay tuition, living expenses, and books?
  • Can I make satisfactory arrangements for my family?
  • Can I go without working full time and give up the income in order to remain a student / return to college?
  • What do I want my life to be like a few years after completing the degree?

"If you enjoy reading, problem-solving, discovering new ideas, you should consider going to graduate school. Your ideas become your major asset. You can decide what you want to do and make it happen. Graduate education gives you the chance to learn more about the things that interest you most and to develop your own interests and skills into a full-time career. In that sense, graduate school can give you the opportunity to take control of your life."

-The Council of Graduate Schools

Is graduate school right for you?

Only you can answer that question. Don't take the decision lightly. Consider your interests, goals, dreams, and abilities. Assess your skills, competencies and weaknesses with brutal honesty. In-depth soul-searching is unpleasant, but vital to making a choice you can live with for the next two to seven years. Consider the following questions:

  • Why do I want to go to graduate school? Is it for the right reasons?
    Students choose graduate school for many reasons, including intellectual curiosity and professional advancement. Some choose grad school because they aren't sure what to do or don't feel ready for a job. These aren't good reasons. Graduate school requires an intense commitment of time and money. If you're not sure that you're ready, then it is best to wait.
  • What are my career goals? Will graduate school assist me in meeting my career goals?
    Some careers, such as those in medicine, dentistry and law, require education beyond the bachelor's degree. A job as a college professor, researcher or psychologist also requires an advanced degree.
  • What will I specialize in? What are my interests?
    Whereas an undergraduate major is a broad introduction to a given field, graduate school is very narrow and specialized. For example, grad school in psychology requires choosing a specialization such as experimental, clinical, counseling, developmental, social or biological psychology. Decide early because your choice determines the programs to which you'll apply. Consider your interests. What courses did you especially like? On what topics have you written papers? Seek advice from professors about the differences among the various specialties in a given field. Inquire about existing employment opportunities for each specialization.
  • Do I have the motivation for another two to seven years of school?
    Graduate school is different from college because it requires a higher level of academic commitment. You must enjoy and excel at reading, writing and analyzing information. Speak with professors and graduate students to get a better idea of what's involved in graduate study. Most first-year graduate students are overwhelmed and remark that they had no idea of what they were getting into. Seek a first-year student's perspective for a reality check.
  • Do I have the academic and personal qualities to succeed?
    Generally, it is expected that students will maintain at least a 3.0 average during graduate school. Some programs deny funding to students with less than a 3.33 average. Can you juggle multiple tasks, projects and papers at once? Can you manage time effectively?

Going to graduate school affects the rest of your life. There are both pros and cons to continuing your education. Seek information from multiple sources including the career or counseling center, your family, graduate students and professors. Take your time with it. Most importantly, trust your judgment and have faith that you'll make the choice that's best for you.

*Adapted from Council of Graduate Schools

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Researching Graduate Schools

When should you begin researching programs?

Start early. You may follow the suggested timeline, but most students will finish researching programs by the beginning of their last year of undergraduate study so they can complete applications during the fall of their senior year. Most application deadlines are between January and April for fall admission but some may be as soon as November. Application deadlines for assistantships and other financial aid for graduate programs are usually earlier than the deadlines for the programs. Remember, you need to give your test scores time to arrive and your references time to write their recommendations.

How should you evaluate programs for consideration?

Consider what is important to you and to your success. For example:
Are there professors with expertise in your areas of interest? Have you heard of or read articles by a particular person in your field that piques your interest? You should find out if and where that person teaches and then seek out that program for more information.

  • Does the program hold appropriate accreditation?
  • How long does it take the average student to complete the program?
  • What are the program requirements and do they seem in line with what you want to research?
  • Are there adequate resources and facilities, equipment, labs, libraries and practicum opportunities to provide you with a well rounded experience?
  • What financial assistance is available? What percentage of students in the program receives institutional funding?
  • What are the geographic location, town size, and housing situation? Does that fit in with the type of environment you need in order to be successful?

When at all possible, visit the schools you are seriously considering. Talk with or e-mail graduate students already in the programs. Find out about the relationship between students and faculty. Will you get what you need out of the program?

How should you begin researching programs?

You may begin your search for the right graduate program by using several of the online graduate school search engines. Gradschools.com and Petersons.com provide a great start in the process. The Education and Social Science Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides a listing of various tools for researching the rankings of graduate and professional programs. Information on graduate schools is also available in the Career Resource Center, 22 SCC.

Keep a list of the schools and the criteria you will use to evaluate the programs. This will assist you in the process. Use a worksheet to assist you with the details.

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Applying, Testing and Personal Statement

The application to graduate or professional school typically contains five equally important elements:

  1. Application form
  2. Personal Statement or Statement of Purpose
  3. Letters of Recommendation or Recommendation Forms
  4. Official transcripts of all college level academic work
  5. Test scores

Application Form

This is the form that asks for the essential information that the institution will use to file and keep track of your application. Fill it out clearly and accurately. Be consistent in spelling out your full, legal name on all forms and correspondence.

Request an application form, download the application or be prepared to fill out the form online. Each school's application is different, so pay close attention to the form and its instructions. If you fail to follow instructions or if you fail to include a piece of information, you might eliminate the chance for your application to be compared against other applications.

Personal Statement or Statement of Purpose

The Personal Statement, sometimes referred to as the "Essay", is probably the most critical part of the application. It is your first chance to provide the admissions committee with subjective information about your qualifications and your reasons for choosing a particular program/career. The statement provides the faculty assessing your application information regarding your motivation, intellectual skills and suitability for study in their program.

What are your intentions for graduate study? Do you write clearly? Do your interests really fit those of the department or school? Are there things about you that set you apart from other applicants and make you particularly desirable as a student? You will want to discuss what makes you a unique individual - to present yourself as an applicant who deserves a closer look. They know nothing about you that you do not tell them. YOU are the subject of this statement.

Letters of Recommendation or Recommendation Forms

Letters of recommendation are required for almost every graduate school application and are a very important part of the application process. Usually grades and test scores factor in most heavily; however, your letters of recommendation could be the deciding factor in the admission process. Strong letters of recommendation can strengthen your application and if there are deficiencies in your application, they can help outweigh them.

For more information and suggestions regarding requesting letters of recommendation, visit Letters of Recommendation.

Official Transcripts of all college level academic work

Graduate programs require official transcripts of all college work that you have undertaken. Request your transcripts early, to avoid any delay. Your grade point average is a strong indicator of your ability to do graduate work, and admissions committees consider it carefully. They will look not only at your cumulative GPA, but also at the grades you earned in your major, particularly at upper division courses in that subject. Patterns of improvement could be significant if you did not start out strongly.

Test Scores

When looking at the requirements for admission, you need to determine if you need to take an admissions test such as the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), or a test appropriate to your professional area such as the LSAT for law school, MCAT for medical school, GMAT for business school, or PCAT for pharmacy school. Be certain to prepare effectively, register early and submit your scores well before the deadline. For more information, visit our Testing page.

*Adapted from Graduate School and You, Council of Graduate Schools

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Additional Resources

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Last modified on 10/08/12 03:30 PM
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