The journey to graduate school is daunting. If you’re anything like me, the anxiety and stress of applying to undergrad still feel extremely fresh. I just opened those acceptance and rejection letters. How can it possibly be time to do all of that again? Not to mention the process is confusing, and half the time advisors are no help. The difference between a personal statement and a statement of purpose, how to build a resume, if I needed to take the GRE, etc. became big questions no one could seem to answer.
Somehow, I made it through the muddy waters and am on the other side of it now, with multiple acceptances to choose from. Here are the things I learned so the process is easier for you!
Getting Started
The first step is building your list of schools. There’s no bad time to start this process, but I would recommend doing it by the summer before your last year of undergrad. I’m personally pursuing a Master’s in forensic science. I narrowed down my choices by FEPAC accreditation, location, and program type. That gave me an easy, concrete boundary to work with. No point in researching a program in Texas if you know you’d never want to live there. It would be just as easy to start with location first if you know you want to stay in a region or particular state. Again, why waste time on a university’s website if it’s in a location you find undesirable?
Once I had about 10 schools, I read the specifics on the programs. This is very important! Not only to make sure the course offerings are what you want, but also to check the required courses you need to take during undergrad to apply. That is why I recommend doing this process when you still have two semesters left. If there is a class you need but haven’t taken, you still have the wiggle room to take it. You don’t need a finalized grade for it to count; as long as it shows up as “in progress” on your transcript, it will check that box.
I ended up with six schools where I was going to apply. I felt like this was a manageable number of applications. Doing more is also great, but keep in mind that application fees do add up quickly. I would say four schools minimum. You will likely get a rejection or two, and that can feel world-ending if you only submitted three applications.
You Chose Your Schools…Now What?
Once you know where you want to apply, there are two things that you’ll want to do next. First, consider visiting your top choices in person. I visited one of my top schools and was shocked to find that I hated it!
The second thing you want to do is start your applications. Most schools open their applications in late August through mid-September. There is no Common App equivalent. This means you will have to make accounts at every school you want to apply to and then open an application. It can be annoying and time-consuming. I suggest starting a bookmark folder on your browser and bookmarking each university page once you’re logged in and on the application. That was very useful for me in quickly hopping between sites.
Creating your applications will allow you to know what you need to submit and when the application deadlines are. Add these deadlines to your calendar. In my experience, grad school deadlines vary significantly. You will also notice there is a priority deadline alongside a regular deadline. I treated the priority deadline as the only one; many schools reserve scholarships and TA positions for these applicants. I saw deadlines that ranged from Jan. 15 to June 1, so it is a very broad spectrum.
At the same time, make a Google Drive folder for your grad school operations. I made a “statement” doc and pasted the prompts for each school’s statement into it. That eliminated the hassle of revisiting the application websites when I was ready to start writing. You don’t have to write right away! You might make this doc in August and not start writing until November.
Doing these two things sooner rather than later helped my deadlines feel concrete and made the task at hand clear.
The Statement
When you are ready to start writing, you may notice some applications call it a “personal statement” (PS) and some call it a “statement of purpose” (SoP). Some schools may not provide any guidance whatsoever on a prompt outside of this title. I treated them as two different things, but with common elements. It is important to highlight why you are interested in your field, the experiences in undergrad that have prepared you for grad school, and your career goals. I consider these the three pillars of a statement. In my PS, I wrote more about my journey and added a bit more flair. In my SoP, I limited my interest to a paragraph. I wrote the former first and used it to write a summary for the latter.
Excerpt Personal Statement:
“…These are their stories.” Dun dun!
The opening to Law & Order is perhaps the TV introduction that I know best, followed closely by its iconic theme song. My parents always watched the reruns of the crime show classic in the evenings. When I got old enough, I was allowed to sit and watch with them. A few years later and suddenly that was our family show. A summer night spent eating Dairy Queen, building a jigsaw puzzle with my brother, my dad denying falling asleep on the couch, my mom laughing at a Facebook post, and Law & Order playing on the TV. That, to me, is the slice of the world that I call home. And it is perhaps where the seeds of what would become my love for forensic science were planted. As I got older, I graduated to shows like Dateline and eventually started watching crime documentaries. Simultaneously, I started to discover an intense love and passion for the field of biology in school. There was one field that overlapped both these budding interests of mine: forensic science. And just like that, I was hooked. I knew that this was the path that was meant for me.
I have received incredible support along the way. My parents gave me access to all the resources they could and the confidence that I could chase my dreams. My science teachers in high school took my passion seriously and helped guide me through the process of choosing biology as my college major. And the second family I found after moving from small-town Colorado to Boston, Massachusetts to attend UMass Boston.
Excerpt Statement of Purpose:
I have been magnetically drawn to forensic science for most of my life. Classic crime shows like Law & Order, combined with several excellent biology teachers in school, made it clear that forensics was the path meant for me.
It was with this goal in mind that I packed up my life in small-town Colorado and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, a place I had only been once prior and where I knew no one. I did this not only because of the opportunities afforded to me at UMass Boston, but also because of the challenge. Forensic science is a complex, diverse, ever-changing field. Boston is a complex, diverse, bustling city. If I could succeed there, I could succeed in forensics.
I generally kept a more professional tone in my SoP. In both statements, I focused most on my research experience in a lab on campus, as this was most relevant to my preparation for grad school. Put a lot of emphasis and detail into whatever that experience is for you.
Even in the SoP, don’t be afraid to express some personality. I made a joke about learning to crochet and bingeing NCIS in mine as a way to highlight how I like to stay busy. While a professional tone is important, this is also your only chance to show who you are. In my PS, personality flowed through the whole thing. In my SoP, I left it as a sparkle here and there.
Some schools may specify length, others may not. Both versions of my statement were two full pages in Times New Roman size 12. I chose not to double-space unless specified by the program.
Letters of Recommendation
Choosing who you want your letters of recommendation from should be fairly straightforward, especially if you’ve already written your statement. In my statement, my research experience and work as a campus tour guide had a lot of spotlight. Subsequently, I chose my lab professor and tour guide boss to submit my letters. A couple of my programs required a third letter, which I got from an honors college professor. Don’t feel limited only to the field you’re entering! Your transcript will speak to your coursework and grades. You want to give programs a view of how well-rounded you are and your ability to thrive in a variety of environments.
The (villainous) GRE
Very few universities require the GRE these days, so this may not concern you. If it’s not required, don’t do it. If it is, brace yourself. The GRE is the SAT for grad school, only more evil. As a quick overview, the GRE is composed of three sections: the verbal, the quantitative, and the essay. The verbal and the quant are composed of two subsections each. Your performance on subsection one determines the difficulty (and thus how high you can score) of subsection two. The verbal and quant are scored 130-170 each, then added together for the overall score, while the essay is separate and scored 0-6. If you have experience with AP exams, specifically AP Lit, Lang, or US History, you’re in a good position for the essay. The verbal is going to be composed of about 1,000 words, 500 of which you’ve never seen in your life. I’m saying that as an avid reader and native English speaker. You’ll need to study them. The reading comprehension part is not bad at all and is very similar to the SAT. For the quant, it is made up of a variety of math topics. But it isn’t just about math. It’s about knowing the shortcuts to solve as efficiently as possible. I used a website called Gregmat to guide me in my studying. A lot of GRE prep is extremely expensive, but I found this was affordable ($8 a month) and made the best use of my limited study time of two months. The exam will also score you (minus the essay) as soon as you finish. Absolutely diabolical.
One last note about the GRE: the percentiles are determined by average scores within the last three years. This is important because in the last three years, the majority of programs have phased out the use of the GRE, so now the demographic of students taking the exam is scoring much higher. My 159 on the quant was 47th percentile. But it’s still 159/170. So don’t get discouraged based on the percentile alone! I was still accepted into my top program with that score, so I believe they consider both aspects. Don’t hesitate to reach out to admissions to ask what score ranges they look for if you’re concerned. The exam is expensive and not worth retaking unless absolutely necessary.
Other Advice
This may seem obvious, but don’t hesitate to email admissions and ask questions! Some programs will have a specific email address, while others will only have general graduate admissions. Here are some of the questions that I asked that helped shape my approach and expectations:
- How many students apply vs how many are accepted?
- Do you do rolling admission, or is there a decision release date?
- Do you recommend submitting a GRE score, and what is a good score range?
- Is there graduate student housing available?
Answers to these questions can be very helpful! Some schools have this information on their website, but I found student numbers to be very secretive. A 30% acceptance rate feels very different when you know it’s 3/10 versus 3000/10000. The application pools are significantly smaller than undergrad. That is why those glimmers of personality matter in your statement.
If you have the opportunity, take an official school tour or attend a virtual admissions session! This is a great way to not only learn more about the program/school, but may also get you a fee waiver code. One of my schools offered me a code automatically via email. When I attended a virtual session, however, I got a different one. I believe they use this to see the interest you have in the university based on whether you attended an event. Boost your application in any way you can!
Hopefully, this advice will be helpful to you as you tackle your grad school journey. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn (linked on my author’s page) if you have further questions, would like to see my full statement, etc. You don’t have to tackle grad school alone. And remember: You worked hard to be here. You deserve the successes that are coming. And you got this!