Preparing For Graduate Work

Academic Preparation

Graduate school in the Arts and Sciences is a tremendous commitment of time and money. It may also be one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences for you. In order to succeed in both your admissions applications and your time as a graduate student, you need to prepare yourself academically; it is never too early to start.

• Get to know faculty by attending office hours, taking seminar courses, working as a research or lab assistant.
• Take challenging coursework that will help you decide if graduate study is what you wish to pursue. Go beyond your department's requirements.
• Take critical theory, methods or skill building courses in your field.
• Write seminar and research papers. This will help you gauge your interest in research and writing and may provide you with a strong writing sample for your application.
• Look for or create a capstone experience for your college education—this might take the form of a BA paper or project or an independent research course exploring a particular topic.
• Take necessary language courses. Even though your planned graduate work may not involve a foreign language, many programs in the humanities and social sciences require all students to pass a language exam or show competency in a language other than English.
• Participate in research as much as possible, for example through summer opportunities, course work, or independent projects. Look at the opportunities in FROGS.

Personal Preparation

• Examine your career goals along with your interests and skills to ensure that Graduate School is the right path for you. Do not let graduate school be a default for not wanting to get a job or to delay entering the "real world." Talk to a CAPS counselor to assess whether graduate school is the right path for you.
• Talk to graduate students to find out what graduate school is really like.
• Contact college alumni who are attending graduate school elsewhere to find out about their experiences.
• Do not assume you need to go through the process of deciding about graduate school or applying to graduate school alone. Talk to graduate students and professors about your personal statements, the best writing sample to use, and the best programs. Make an appointment with the GPS advisor to review your personal statement, writing sample, application materials or to discuss your career goals. Use the Alumni Career Network to find out what other students have done and how they made their decisions.

Professional Preparation

• Develop strong relationships with faculty.
• Attend departmental lectures and functions.
• Attend conferences and colloquia.
• Conduct research either through Research Assistant positions, summer research opportunities, coursework papers, BA papers and projects.
• Submit your work for awards and prizes.
• Organize colloquia, conferences or exhibits.
• Apply for research or study grants.
• Study the foreign language(s) needed for graduate or professional work in your field. Apply for FLAS money for language study if appropriate.