Graduate Level Mental Meltdown

What do you do when you graduate from college? You got to Grad school of course. The question is what Grad school? For the last two weeks, I’ve been researching and researching trying to figure out what I need to do before I graduate in a year. It turns out going to Graduate school isn’t as easy as it looks.

The first thing you need to do is narrow down your options as to which schools you want to try for. No less than three top picks, no more than five. Three gives you options and back up options; more than five can be overwhelming if you end up getting into too many programs.

After narrowing down the options, start researching. Find out application deadlines, campus visits, offers for assistantships and fellowships and the deadlines for those. Get a general idea of what all will be asked of you in order to apply to the schools of your choice.

Next, try to talk to some alum from the programs you’re going for. This will help weed out any options you weren’t too sure of, as well as let you know if it’s really worth going through the gruesome application process. In my case, it was pretty easy finding alums from all of my choices, which helped a lot in my decision process.

Find out when the GRE is available for you to take. It’s best to take this the fall before you are to start your Grad school program. GRE scores are required upon submission to Graduate school, and most Graduate school applications have to be in by Jan. 1^st if you want to start in the fall semester. If you can, start studying for the GRE as soon as you can. The higher the score the better chance you have of being chosen over someone else with similar experience and GPA.

Make sure you line up your letters of recommendation and ask the people you want to write them for you long before they need to be written. This way, if you get a “no”, which is rare, but it happens, you have plenty of time to find someone else to do it.

Try to plot out a six to ten year life plan. Most applications require a personal statement from you about what your overall goals are. This short term life plan can help keep your statement direct and concise, without going into too much unnecessary detail.

Most important, stay organized and stay focused. Any type of derailment can result in immense panic and a forgotten deadline. This is scary stuff, and I’ve only been going through it for half a month. I have a whole year ahead of me, but I think I’m ready for the challenge.