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Graduate School

If an advanced education or specialized knowledge is required to obtain your career goals or attain personal satisfaction, then graduate school is for you. The Office of Career Services has a variety of resources available to help with the process. If you don't know what else to do with your life and are looking to prolong a career decision, then you should rethink the idea of graduate school at this time.

Selection Process
Application Process
Timetable
Graduate Admission Tests
Application Essays
Transcripts
Letters of Recommendation
Financial Aid
Search for Graduate Programs and Rankings

Selection Process
There are a number of factors to think about when deciding where to apply for graduate school. Talk with your advisor and professors about your areas of interest and ask for their advice regarding the best programs. Some things to consider:

  • What kind of students enroll in the program (academic abilities, achievements, skills, geographic representation and level of professional success upon completion of the program)?
  • What are the program's resources like (financial support, the library, laboratory equipment and computer facilities)?
  • What does the program have to offer in terms of both curriculum and service?
  • What are the student-faculty ratios, and what kind of interaction is there between students and professors?
  •  What is the reputation of its faculty? 
Application Process

Application deadlines vary, but most deadlines are between January and March. Many schools with rolling admissions encourage and act upon early applications. Applying early to a school with rolling admissions is usually advantageous, as it shows your enthusiasm for the program and gives admissions committees more time to evaluate the subjective components of your application.

Obtaining Application Forms and Information
To obtain the materials you need, send a postcard to the graduate school(s) of your choice, requesting an application, a bulletin and financial aid information. You may also request an application by writing a formal letter to the department chair in which you briefly describe your training, experience and specialized research interests.

Meeting Application Requirements
Requirements vary from one field to another and from one institution to another. Read each program's requirements carefully; the importance of this cannot be overemphasized.

Submitting Completed Applications
Some graduate schools may request that you send all application materials in one package (including letters of recommendation). Others may have a two-step application process – a preliminary application and a second set of documents. Pay close attention to each school's instructions.

Graduate schools generally require an application fee. Sometimes this fee may be waived if you meet certain financial criteria. Check with the graduate schools to which you are applying to see if you qualify.

Admission Decisions
In most cases, once the graduate school office has received all of your application materials your file is sent directly to the academic department. A faculty committee (or the department chairperson) then makes a recommendation to the chief graduate school officer (usually a graduate dean or vice president), who is responsible for the final admission decision.

Usually a student's grade point average, letters of recommendation and graduate admission test scores are the primary factors considered by admissions committees. The weight assigned to specific factors fluctuates from program to program. Few, if any, institutions base their decisions purely on numbers, that is, admission test scores and grade point average.

Some of the common reasons applicants are rejected for admission to graduate schools are inappropriate undergraduate curriculum; poor grades; low admission test scores; weak recommendation letters; a poor interview; incomplete and/or late applications; and lack of extracurricular activities, volunteer experience or research activities. To give yourself the best chances of being admitted where you apply, try to make a realistic assessment of an institution's admission standards and your own qualifications.

Timetable
The following is intended as a guide:

September

  • Attend the Donald Asher presentation on graduate school application process during the fall semester
  • Research areas of interest, institutions and programs
  • Talk to advisers about application requirements
  • Register and prepare for appropriate graduate admission tests
  • Investigate national scholarships
  • Write for application materials or request them online. 

October/November

  • Take the required graduate admission tests
  • Check on application deadlines and rolling admissions policies
  • Obtain letters of recommendation from professors
  • Write your application essay
  • Send in completed applications

December/January

March/April

  • Visit institutions that accept you
  • Send a deposit to your institution of choice
  • Notify other colleges and universities that accepted you of your decision so that they can admit students on their waiting list
  • Send thank-you notes to people who wrote your recommendation letters, informing them of your success

Graduate Admission Tests
Colleges and universities usually require a specific graduate admission test, and departments sometimes have their own requirements as well. Scores are used in evaluating the likelihood of your success in a particular program (based upon the success rate of past students with similar scores). Most programs will not accept scores more than three to five years old. The Office of Career Services offers test materials for the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT and CBEST.

Application Essays
Your application essay or personal statement should be essentially a clear, succinct statement showing that you have a definite sense of what you want to do and enthusiasm for the field of study you have chosen. It should also be typed and framed in a positive tone and reflect your writing abilities. Before writing anything, stop and consider what your reader might be looking for; the general directions or other parts of the application may give you an indication of this.

There are two main approaches to organizing an essay: (1) outline the points you want to cover and expand on them or (2) put your ideas down on paper as they come to you, going over them, eliminating and organizing certain sentences until you achieve a logical sequence. Use the approach you feel most comfortable with, but make sure you have your essay critiqued. Your adviser and those who write your letters of recommendation may be very helpful to you in this regard.

If there is information in your application that might reflect badly on you, it is better not to deal with it in your essay unless you are asked to. You can address the issue(s) on a separate sheet entitled "Addendum," which you attach to the application, or in a cover letter that you enclose. In either form, your explanation should be short and to the point, avoiding long, tedious excuses. In addition to supplying your own explanation, you may find it appropriate to ask one or more of your references to address the issue in their recommendation letter. Ask them to do this only if they are already familiar with your problem and could talk about it from a positive perspective.

Here are some possible links that you might want to check out -
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/pw/p_perstate.html
http://essayedge.com/graduate/essayadvice/course
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~csrc/students/gradschool/artscie/statement.html
http://career.berkeley.edu/Grad/GradStatement.stm

Transcripts
Admissions committees require official transcripts of your grades to evaluate your academic preparation for graduate study. Grade point averages are important, but are not examined in isolation; the rigor of the courses you have taken, your course load and the reputation of Harvey Mudd College are also scrutinized.

Letters of Recommendations
Most graduate schools require two or three letters of recommendation. To begin the process of choosing references, identify likely candidates from among those you know through your classes, extracurricular activities and jobs.

Approach your potential references and ask if they think they know you well enough to write a meaningful letter. Keep in mind that the later in the semester you ask, the more likely they are to hesitate because of time constraints. Once those you ask agree, make an appointment to talk with them and hand over recommendation forms and addressed, stamped envelopes for their convenience. In addition, give your references other supporting materials—transcripts, resume, your application essay and/or a copy of a research paper—that will assist them in writing a good, detailed letter on your behalf.

Financial Aid
There are three types of aid: money given to you (grants, scholarships, and fellowships), money you earn through work and loans.

Grants, Scholarships, and Fellowships
Most grants, scholarships, and fellowships are outright awards that require no service in return. Often they provide the cost of tuition and fees plus a stipend to cover living expenses. Some are based exclusively on financial need, some exclusively on academic merit, and some on a combination of need and merit.

Fellowships and scholarships often connote selectivity based on ability—financial need is usually not a factor.

Several federal agencies fund fellowship and trainee programs for graduate and professional students. The amounts and types of assistance offered vary considerably by field of study. The following programs are available to those studying engineering or applied sciences:

Financial Aid
All applicants for federal aid must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This application must be submitted after January 1 preceding enrollment in the fall. Two to four weeks later you'll receive an acknowledgment, the Student Aid Report (SAR), on which you can make any corrections. The schools you've designated will also receive the information and may begin asking you to send them documents, usually your U.S. income tax return, verifying what you reported.

Search for Graduate Programs

GradSchools.com lists more than 58,000 unique graduate programs from around the world. The site is listed number one on Google, Yahoo, and most search engine sites.

Graduate School Rankings
PhDs.org 
Find the graduate school that's right for you.  The data comes for the National Sicence Foundation, the National Research Council and the National Center for Education Statistics.

U.S. News & World Reports - Best Graduate Schools