As this year comes to a close, I remembered the time at the beginning of the year when I was taking the GRE and filling out my own grad school applications. It’s a stressful time – if you’re in school, it’s the equivalent of an additional 5-unit class and if you’re in the workplace, it’s similar to having homework again. So, I asked myself, “Why is applying to grad school so hard?”
In my experience, the following points made the application process much more stressful. Even more than preparing for GRE. Unfortunately, unlike GRE Prep, you do not have excellent tools such as Barron’s GRE course at your disposal. You have to figure these things out on your own. There is no cookie-cutter approach.
- The “statement of purpose.” More so than undergrad, grad school statements of purposes have to have a very clear, direct purpose. Not to say that your undergrad statement of purpose wasn’t purposeful, but the beauty of undergrad was exploration. Getting to know topics that you had never seen before: psychology, anthropology, demography, ethnic studies, and comparative literature to name a few. How could you possibly know exactly what you want to study when K-12 focuses on English, Math, History, and Science? If you did know, props to you. I was much too indecisive to know for sure. As an undergrad, school is about choice and endless opportunity. Unfortunately (or fortunately) grad school means you’ve chosen. You’re taking a giant leap forward in the field of your choice. You’re making a commitment to academia. There’s no changing fields in grad school. Just try telling the English PhD department you’d really love to give Chemistry a go. Your statement of purpose should demonstrate that you’ve made a conscious choice for your future.
- Letters of Recommendation. Yes, you’ll need them. For students that go to a smaller school, I hear this is easier. I went to a large research university with over 35,000 students. It’s difficult to make personal relationships with odds like that. First, you want to pick a professor that will say something nice about you. This seems obvious, but in most cases you won’t see the letter, so you need to be rather confident. Choose a professor for a class that you did reasonably well in. It’ll help if you went to class on a regular basis and if you went to your section or office hours. It’s terrifying to ask an intelligent professor to spend time writing a letter about you, but it’s a necessary component to an application. And unfortunately, you’ll need two or three letters! Make sure you are respectful of their time and give them a significant amount of time (about a month) to prepare your letter. It’s helpful to bring a “brag sheet” about you. While they know you academically, inform them of your extracurricular activities and interests.
- $$$. Applying to Grad School is an expensive venture. With application fees, transcript fees, and necessary tests. It adds up quickly. Make sure you plan ahead as you start on this venture. My own application process ended up costing around $1,000. I’ve heard med school horror stories of multiple thousands of dollars.
For all those negatives, now that I’m here, grad school rocks! Once there, all of the woes disappear into a forgotten haze. The hard work is deciding what your passion is. The easy and fun part is an in-depth, eye-opening exploration of your favorite interest.
Subscribe to blog feeds.