5 Secrets of Graduate Admissions Does graduate school stand between you and success? It is required for access to certain fields, such as law or medicine or teaching at the university level. Even if it is not an entry-level ticket to a given profession, it is often required to advance beyond the first level. For example, a graduate degree is often the difference between a teacher and a principal, or between an accountant and a financial officer, or between someone who works for a nonprofit and someone who runs a nonprofit.
Graduate education is associated with higher income, lower unemployment, better health, longer life and a host of other positive life outcomes. Census Bureau statistics and studies including The College Board's 2007 "Education Pays" report support those claims. Even supposedly stodgy Ph.D.s vastly outearn their lesser-educated fellows.
I have spent 17 years helping undergraduates get into the most competitive graduate programs in the nation. This has put me in contact with the best and the brightest students in the country, including low-income and underrepresented scholars involved in several federally funded programs.
After helping tens of thousands of students realize their graduate school dreams, and writing a book on the graduate admissions process, here is what I consider the Top Five Secrets to Graduate Admissions:
Secret #1: Decide to go, and then find the money
Prospective students agonize over the cost of graduate school. This is wrong-minded. If you decide to go to graduate school, you will find the money to go. Graduate programs will be happy to explain to you how you can afford their programs. I'm not saying it won't be difficult, but I am saying that paying for graduate school is not that mysterious.
Minimize your consumer debt, stop buying stuff now, and get on with it. Graduate school is like a new child; no one is financially ready for a child, but somehow people make do. If everyone waited until they were financially ready, there'd be a lot fewer children, and a lot fewer graduate degrees conferred.
Secret #2: Customize, customize, customize ! Graduate schools view themselves as unique. Even medical schools, which may all seem alike, are actually quite proud of their differences. One may allow patient contact from the first semester, and one may take pride in its pediatric oncology center, and yet another may be famous for its urban trauma center where military physicians learn to treat gunshot wounds.
Copying and pasting your admission letter will not get you into graduate school. Customize each application as much as you can to reflect the differences between programs.
Specific interests that match a program's strengths can make a "statistically unimpressive" student into a winner. If you can visit a program and discuss these interests in person prior to applying, you can create advocates on the other side of the process who will protect you from arbitrary cutoffs.
Secret #4: Geographical limitations are a killer If you restrict your search to schools within a short commute, you are severely handicapping your ability to be a great candidate because you're severely limiting your pool of programs. This is true even if you live in Boston or L.A. or New York City. If the University of Lower Dusty Nowhere is going to give you a scholarship and allow you to work directly with fantastic faculty, then go for it. Get over your provincialism. Learn a little bit about America. Don't let your biases keep you from advancing your education.
And don't assume your family won't back you. I had a student in a workshop call her two teenage sons and ask them if they'd move with her if she got into an elite Ph.D. program. To her surprise, they both said, "You bet, Mom!"
Secret #5: There is a grad school out there for you if you want it
You don't need perfect grades or perfect scores. You don't need a superstar's résumé. You just need to look until you find an option that works for you. There are weekend-only options. There are graduate programs that meet on Thursday nights. There are even some very good programs that don't require an entrance exam. So, do a little exploring and see if grad school is possible for you.
author:- Donald Asher