Finally after a long and arduous journey throughout the last few months, I have finally completed my graduate school applications! Though the entire experience certainly had its ups and downs, it taught me so much about the complicated graduate school process and also a great deal about myself. So after nearly a six month rollercoaster of determining my future for next year, here are my personal tips on how to have the easiest and best experience applying to graduate school:
1) Don’t Procrastinate… Start Early!
The best advice I can have for anyone thinking about applying to graduate school is to start early! This includes starting early on registering, studying, and taking the GRE; making a list of schools that you would like to apply to; getting in touch with the Career Center for additional resources; and making a excel spreadsheet of deadlines and requirements for each of your schools. The best time to start this process is in the summer before the chaos of senior year begins; trust me, you will thank me later. It definitely pays to put in the work early rather than scrambling at the end to make deadlines.
2) Find the Resources You Need
Resources for graduate school admissions are all around you and often the best resources are easily accessible. For GRE studying, I recommend downloading the free apps “Magoosh GRE Prep” and “IntelliVocab for GRE”. Not only were these resources free, but also they were very helpful for my studying purposes! Additionally, the Career Center is a great resource for any help you may need whether it is personal statement review or helping you collect your letters of recommendation. I highly recommend using their services at any step of the graduate school process!
3) Be You
Yes, this advice may sound corny—but the best knowledge I can share is that this process truly will show you whether or not graduate school should be your next step. When writing my personal statement, I realized how passionate I am about the field I am applying for and how much I desired to further my studies. A genuine passion for your graduate school studies and an honest, and even sometimes critical, reflection of yourself make up the best applicant. This is a time to not only figure out your future, but to also to understand yourself even more as not only an applicant but as a person. Embrace the ups and downs of the process and simply put, be you!
The graduate school application process can be certainly daunting but as long as you follow these tips, you will be successful! It is sometimes hard to believe that the next path of my education is already about to begin. However if I’ve learned anything during my undergraduate years, it’s that time flies in college!
Sources:
http://www.bc.edu/offices/careers/gradschool.html
http://philosophycommons.typepad.com/.a/6a01901e204628970b01b8d073193b97…
http://40.media.tumblr.com/7b1f00e7881b12f26751ccc8dba82d59/tumblr_n96n4…
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/a5/a5171e4595cd170f9a47e938eba87588bba8e07d…
http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpf4t0mAcN1qkt9coo1_500.jpg