Graduate School: Winning Strategies For Getting In

Graduate School:

Winning Strategies For Getting In, 2nd edition

By Dave G. Mumby, Ph.D.

Published by Proto Press Publications at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Proto Press Publications.

All rights reserved

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For more information about applying to and surviving Graduate School, visit our online resources:

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MyGraduateSchool.com

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http://myGraduateSchool.wordpress.com

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyGraduateSchoolcom/228626467167080

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The publisher and author are not responsible for any loss occurring to any persons acting or refraining from action as a result of any advice provided in this eBook.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER 1. Truths & Myths About Graduate School

CHAPTER 2. What You Need to Know Before Applying to Graduate School

CHAPTER 3. Making the Right Choices

CHAPTER 4. It’s Not All About Grades

CHAPTER 5. Enhancing the Objective Components of Your Application

CHAPTER 6. Letters of Recommendation (a.k.a. Reference Letters)

CHAPTER 7. The Personal Statement and CV

CHAPTER 8. First Impressions Matter Most

CHAPTER 9. A Major Step That Most Students Miss

CHAPTER 10. Putting It All Together For a Winning Application

CHAPTER 11. Financing Your Graduate Studies

About the Author

Introduction

Societies of today are complex and dynamic, and the roles played by different individuals are becoming more and more varied all the time. The variety of possible occupations or career paths that someone could potentially pursue is absolutely huge.

Yet, these are not good times for most young people in much of the developed world. Many nations are struggling with devastatingly high unemployment levels, economies that are sluggish or even shrinking, and with bleak prospects for significant improvements any time soon. There are too many people, and not enough opportunities for employment and career success to go around. To be competitive in the job market, a person needs an edge.

A college education and some relevant experience considerably improve the odds of landing a decent job. A college degree is not enough, however, if a person wants to pursue some of the more interesting or rewarding careers that are out there for talented experts who have advanced training in specialized domains. Many of those careers are available only to people who have gone on to graduate school after college – people who have obtained a master’s or a doctorate degree.

The rub is that there are not enough places in graduate programs for all the students who would like to be enrolled in one, and most applicants to graduate school fail to get in. To be competitive in the graduate-school market, a person needs an edge.

The purpose of this book is to give undergraduate college and university students an edge, by showing them how to prepare for and apply successfully to graduate school. That edge shall have several facets. Readers will gain a special awareness of what graduate programs and graduate supervisors are really looking for in applicants. This will require dispelling some widely held misconceptions about what matters and what does not when it comes to getting into graduate school. Along the way, readers will learn everything they need to know about the process of applying to graduate school, and how to make the most of each component of their own applications. Common mistakes that often undermine the quality of an application will be identified, so the reader will learn not only what to do, but also what to avoid doing. Some mistakes are made during the first couple of years of college, so the sooner students read this book, the more they will get out of it.

New In This Edition

This is the second edition of Graduate School: Winning Strategies For Getting In – the first edition was published way back in 1997. A lot has changed in the past decade and a half, and this update is certainly overdue. Sharp-eyed librarians or career counselors might even notice that the subtitle has changed, slightly. The first edition was subtitled, "Winning Strategies For Getting In With or Without Excellent Grades." So, what’s up with that? Why drop the …With or Without Excellent Grades part? That was done to eliminate an annoying misperception that cropped up a few times: The part about grades had some people assuming the aim was to help weak students fake their way into graduate school. Not many people assumed this, but enough did so that seemed like a good idea to truncate the subtitle. Of course, the point of the original subtitle was to emphasize that one does not need the very best college grades to get into graduate school, nor does having excellent grades guarantee that one will get into graduate school. The aim is not to help weak students find a way into graduate school, but rather to help capable students put their best foot forward when applying to graduate school. Mediocre students should not give more than a passing thought to graduate school, because graduate school is not for everyone – most people are much better off joining the workforce after college.

Back to what’s new in this edition… The entire book has been extensively edited, each chapter rewritten and expanded, and all the crucial messages that were conveyed in the first edition are now recast in a newer, more vibrant text. In just 15 years, the details of how to deal with certain aspects of the graduate-school application process have changed a great deal, due to developments in how graduate schools utilize the Internet for promotion and recruiting, providing program information, and for online applications. In the mid-1990s, the telephone and regular mail still played big roles when it came to doing such things as contacting graduate programs, acquiring and submitting application materials, or corresponding with potential graduate supervisors, to name just a few examples. Much of that has been replaced by prudent email correspondence, or visits to graduate-program websites. Unlike the book that was published in the 1990s, this new edition is written for the 21st-century college student. No more mention of typewriter ribbons.

Much new material has been added, too, including expanded coverage of several key topics, plus some altogether new ones. For example, instead of just a major section about letters of recommendation, there is now an entire chapter dedicated to this critical component of a graduate-school application, and the discussion has been expanded in several directions. This edition has a more extensive discussion of the things students should be doing in their first few years of college in order to get effective and relevant letters of recommendation when it comes time to apply to graduate school. A new section describes the student-evaluation forms that referees typically have to fill out along with the letters they write. These additions were made with the hope that students who have a good understanding of the dimensions on which they will be evaluated should find it easier to decide whom to ask for a reference. This insight should also help some students realize that they need to do more than they currently are doing if they want to set up an effective letter of recommendation for graduate school.

The previous edition was the first book to emphasize the importance of contacting prospective supervisors prior to applying to graduate school, and it was also the first to explain why choosing the right supervisor is more important than choosing the right school. In this edition, readers are shown how to avoid certain pitfalls when choosing a graduate supervisor, and when choosing which programs to apply to, and how to stay focused on the most relevant factors.

A new section explains what program accreditation means and why it is such an important factor when choosing where to apply. Readers are shown how to find out whether programs that interest them have been accredited by official regional or national bodies.

This edition also has an entire chapter dedicated to finding the money one needs to go to graduate school.

The most exciting new developments in preparation for this edition of Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting In, has been the creation of a companion website – MyGraduateSchool.com The author and the publishers will be using the website as a platform to expand, elaborate, and evolve the topics covered in the book. Other contributors will be able to get involved with the project, as well.

One final change to mention for this edition: We eliminated the Resources section – an appendix in the first edition that listed numerous useful websites and print resources. Well, we haven’t really eliminated it, as much as we just relocated it. Web-addresses change occasionally, and new resource sites are showing up all the time, so we moved the Resources section to the MyGraduateSchool.com website, where we can easily keep it up to date.

Where the Advice Comes From

The information, opinions, and advice in this book came from three main sources: One source was informal interviews I conducted with university faculty members in a wide range of disciplines — people who teach, train, and supervise undergraduate and graduate students. These people are experts, and they are the best source of insight into what college or university undergraduates need to do when it comes to preparing for and applying to graduate school. Some of the people I interviewed are graduate-program directors, or members of applicant-evaluation and selection committees, and all of them play a role in deciding who gets in and who does not get in to their graduate programs. The people I met and discussed graduate school with were from university departments within the social sciences, the natural sciences, the humanities, fine arts, and engineering. Altogether, those conversations yielded dozens of ideas about how students can improve their chances of getting into graduate school.

A second important source of insight behind much of the advice in this book stems from my own experiences while having been a somewhat typical undergraduate student, a successful graduate student with a Ph.D., and since 1994, a full-time faculty member in the Psychology department at a large university (Concordia University, in Montréal). I do all the things that are typical for a university professor, many of which involve teaching and training undergraduate students and graduate students, and conducting research. One of my roles within our department is to serve as the academic advisor for students in our Honors program, most of who are planning to go to graduate school in Psychology. I have served many times on graduate-program selection committees, and for a little while I was our Graduate Program Director. (Concordia University has excellent master’s and doctorate programs in Psychology). Many of the opinions in this book reflect the way I personally evaluate graduate-school applicants — the positive and negative indicators I look for. It should be noted that my method is not unique; many of my colleagues generally approach the task of evaluating applicants the same way I do.

The third main source of inspiration for certain ideas expressed this book was other advisement books that deal with specific aspects of applying to graduate school (e.g., writing personal statements, performing well at interviews, writing cover letters). The first edition of Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting In was one of the first few books ever published on the subject of applying successfully to graduate school. In the mid-1990s, there were only two other books available on the topic that I was aware of, both of which were aimed specifically at Psychology students. I encountered both of those books while I was writing the first edition of this one, and in both of them I found some good ideas that I had not yet considered, and which I incorporated into my book so that students would have all the best information in one place.

The General Scope and Organization of the eBook

It has been gratifying to see that so many of the issues raised and insights provided in our first edition have now been repeated and paraphrased on a great 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, including a few new books that are aimed at Psychology students! Here’s the thing… you might not be able to tell from the title of this book, but it, too, was written mainly with Psychology students in mind. This should not be surprising, now that you know I am a Psychology professor; obviously, I also went to graduate school and earned my doctorate in Psychology. This book contains all the advice I now dispense weekly to students during academic-advising sessions – remember, most of them are Psychology Honor students.

Nevertheless, the word Psychology is not in the title because this is also a highly useful guidebook for students in any other discipline within the natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities. Moreover, the book also contains some valuable insight and advice for students of Engineering, or Fine Arts, and for those seeking a degree in Business, Law, or Medicine (or any other professional program).

Chapter 1, Truths and Myths About Graduate School, explains that some of the most widely held ideas that college students have about graduate school are inaccurate. Students who previously thought that they were unqualified for graduate school because their grades are less than outstanding will find some encouraging insights in Chapter 1. Students with excellent grades will learn why they need much more than their grades to get into a graduate program that is right for them.

Understanding what graduate school in one’s field of interest actually involves is critical to applying successfully to the right program and having success once one is there. Chapter 2 covers some of the things that students need to know before they can plan a successful application to graduate school. For instance, in order to devise a successful graduate-school application, one must understand the process by which applicants are actually selected. 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. Accordingly, much of Chapter 2 is aimed at describing common graduate-program selection processes.

An applicant’s success often depends on choosing a graduate program that is appropriate for his or her specific goals, and in those disciplines where graduate studies are done under the supervision of a faculty member, on the selection of an appropriate supervisor. Chapter 3 offers suggestions on how to approach the task of making these critical decisions.

Chapter 4 puts the nature of the graduate-school application competition into perspective so that one can devise a general strategy for gaining an advantage over other applicants. It explains what admissions committees and faculty members are really looking for when they view each component of an application.

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 take the reader, step-by-step, through all stages of the application process, focusing on ways to maximize the quality of each of the five main components of a graduate school application: 1) application forms, 2) transcripts, 3) letters of recommendation, 4) standardized tests, and 5) the personal statement. Several pitfalls of the application process are revealed, and the reader is shown how to avoid the costly mistakes that most graduate-school applicants make.

Chapter 6 deals with letters of recommendation (a.k.a. reference letters) – one of the most important criteria by which graduate-school applicants are evaluated. This chapter explains how graduate programs and prospective graduate supervisors use letters of recommendation to help reach decisions about which students to accept. The student-evaluation form that typically accompanies a letter of recommendation is described, and a case is made for why this evaluation form can be even more important than what the referee writes about the student. Letters of recommendation must come from the right people, and in order to be effective, they must do more than just say positive things about the applicant. This chapter will help students determine whom to ask for a letter of recommendation, how to properly make such a request, and how make sure the letter is an effective one.

One aspect of a graduate school application that many students find to be the most difficult is the preparation of a personal statement. Chapter 7 will help make that task easier by explaining how to put together a winning personal statement. This chapter also describes how to put together a proper curriculum vita, and how and when a student should use a c.v.

The later chapters, beginning with chapter 8, discuss how to go beyond the basic application requirements and take extra steps to stand apart from the crowd. Included are such topics as making pre-application contact with a prospective supervisor, writing proper cover letters, and preparing for interviews. Many of the ideas outlined in these chapters do not occur to most students, but those who understand and incorporate them into a strategy for applying to graduate school are almost always successful.

By the time readers get to the end of Chapter 10, they will understand what they should be doing to put together a winning application to a good graduate program. They will know how to do it, too. But, for many students, there will still be a major issue to resolve before going ahead with the actual applications – how are they going to pay for graduate school?

Chapter 11 examines numerous ways that students may be able to find the money they need. No need to explain why this is an important issue on the mind of almost anyone thinking of going to graduate school.

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.

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.

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