How To Get Into Graduate School (for Science): A Step-By-Step Guide

With all this talk about STEM, we are preparing students academically, but in my experience finding one-stop-shop candid advice about getting into graduate school for science was impossible, so without further ado......

Kiah Twisselman / Via fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net

With all this talk about STEM, we are preparing students academically, but in my experience finding one-stop-shop candid advice about getting into graduate school for science was impossible, so without further ado......

This time last year, I was fully immersed in the graduate school application process. My plan was to do a fellowship in Germany for a year before I began graduate school , but I knew that I had to apply to everything because I wasn't going to put all of my eggs in one shoddy-looking basket. The application process was grueling, involving months of hard work and subsequent months of waiting. The process of applying and waiting were the hardest months of my college career. However, in the end I managed success in both getting the fellowships that I wanted in addition to getting accepted into almost all of the graduate programs that I applied for. I applied to a mix of fellowships, masters programs, and PhD programs, so I feel as though I have a good general idea of how the process works. Now,I share my story in hopes of helping others who feel intimidated by the seemingly daunting graduate school application process.

CONGRATS

First thing's first, congrats!! You have decided to take the next step in higher education and apply to graduate school! This means that you have narrowed down your interests in your perspective field and are hopefully one step closer to realizing your passion. Do not take this lightly. This is so important and the key to being self-motivated, which will get you through graduate school.

Now that you know that you are interested, What do you do? Where do you apply? How do you find programs? Who can you talk to? How much does it cost? Why isn't this easy? Should I worry about the GRE? ***I am writing this assuming that you already have decent grades and some research experience.

FIND THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT

This picture is a tribute to coffee, which fueled my graduate school application process. I also mainly worked in Cafes, but find a place that suits you to work on your applications. (See above)

START EARLY(summer before senior year/application cycle):

My university did not explain the graduate school process, or how it is totally different than applying to graduate school in the humanities. This means that you (Yes, you) have to take the first step towards becoming a grad student and seek out information. Your professors have gone through the process, so they are invaluable resources. Your department may not spoon feed you information on graduate school, so it is your job to ask questions. Hearing the experiences of others helps you to learn the process and allows you to form ideas on how the application process will be, in addition to helping unveil the terrifying and intimidating shroud which covers graduate school.

RECOGNIZE AND ORGANIZE YOUR INTERESTS (late summer before application cycle):

Now is also the time to begin identifying and organizing your interests. Finally take the time to update your CV, so it will be ready to attach to applications. In addition to reminding you of everything you've done over the past 4+ years, this will be an important cheat sheet when writing your personal statement and statement of purpose. This is also a time to try and narrow your interests. As an ecologist, I knew that I was broadly interested in the ecological consequences of climate change in tropical forests and how socio-ecological dynamics may be chaning with respect to climate change. Therefore, I started to think more critically about my interests which helped me know what to look for when searching for programs.

LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION (summer/early fall of application cycle)

Ask for these early. Try not to have three letters of recommendation all from your university. One of my letters of recommendation came from my research advisor for an internship that I did at another school. Admissions committees can become skeptical if all your support is "In-House." If you don't have someone outside of your home university to vouch for you, think out of the box. You just want to make sure that the admissions committee isn't receiving three of the same letters.

PERSONAL STATEMENT: WRITE, WRITE, WRITE (summer/early fall of application cycle)

Every school can be different and require varying materials; however, you will definitely have to write a personal statement for each school. Take a second and breathe, collect your thoughts. Use the personal statement as a platform to tell your story. Now is the time to think critically and explore your psychology. We are all vastly different people with a collection of unique experiences that have shaped our identities, so this is your time to explain to the admission committee that you are a one of a kind candidate. You need to describe your personal development that got you to where you are today. It can be so easy to overlook pieces of our own identity, so it is important to have a cognizant level of self-awareness while writing this.

This is also your time to be creative but remain targeted because every word has to count. Graduate programs want candidate that bring unique perspectives to the field because diversity is the key to an enriching education. "But I'm not unique!" FALSE. It's funny that in the narcissistic social media world of today, we have such issues writing about ourselves. You are unique, but you aren't thinking critically enough. Start with where you came from-- small town, suburbs, north, south, east , west, city, country, and find a story. Tie your narrative into your interest in science. How did your experiences bring you to science? How will your experiences help you to contribute to your desired program. When I say experiences, I DO NOT mean essentially listing that you have done X, Y, and Z so now you're interesting. Remember, go deeper! What have you learned from those experiences and how have they altered your world view, and how will that help you in graduate school. Or, how did that experience bring you to science and where you are today! A word to keep in mind is, transformative. It is OK (and actually good) to feel slightly vulnerable when writing this, that probably means you are writing something unique that matters, something that will get you into your dream program. Graduate school is about sticking our neck out there and producing, so here is your first chance to do just that.

RESEARCH, READ, EMAIL(Late summer/fall of application cycle)

How to find a program? Where do you want to be living for 2+ years? This was an important part of my search for graduate programs. Graduate school is stressful enough, so you want to be in an environment that is healthy and makes you happy. For me, that meant big cities. This considerably helped me narrow down my search. Now, use Google!! This is a top-down approach, but the bottom-up works as well if you already have a lab in mind. Find universities that interest you and start looking at their graduate school pages. If something catches your eye, put it into an excel file. This will help you organize the process and make everything so much easier. Place the link to the graduate program and add another column with the deadline of the application. A lot of schools have a December 1st deadline, so it is important to have them organized! Once you have this list, search deeper into your perspective department to find potential advisors. I cannot overstate this enough! Having an advisor you like is KEY! Do not settle!

Once you find a professor that does research you are interested in, add their contact info to your excel file. Go through their CVs to deteremine: how often they publish, if their grad students are first author, if they have funding, and if they are tenured. All of these are often overlooked, but are so important in predicting the dynamic of the lab and your relationship with your potential advisor. If they aren't tenured, they will probably be trying to publish often, but they will also probably want to be first author. Funding is important, so it is always nice to work in a lab with ample grant money available. It shows you that your advisor can write a good grant proposal, which is important for every scientist to know how to do. If you see that graduate students are often first author, it means that you have a good chance of getting your graduate degree with a few publications to add to your CV, which will inevitably help you professionally.

Once you have a list of potential advisors, draft an email to them! Have a basic email briefly describing your interest in being a graduate student and that you have experience in their field of interest. Here you make a short case for yourself. This email needs to be less than a page and demonstrate to the professor that you have read some of their research and will be a good asset to their lab because of X, Y, and Z. At the end of the email, suggest a campus visit or telephone call to further discuss your interest and to learn about the professor's lab. Also, don't forget to attach your CV. Remember, that people are extremely busy, so if you do not hear back in two weeks, send a follow-up email. You have nothing to lose, and you can't get what you don't ask for. If you do not hear back from the faculty member, forget it and move on! Do not waste time on a potential lost cause. They may not have room for graduate students this year (sometimes their webpage will explicitly say).

For all programs, visit if it is doable. If not, definitely setup a phone call with your potential advisor, and be sure to come with many questions. In fact, have a list of questions with you for the call/meeting. This demonstrates that you are prepared and serious. Be able to comment on one of the professors publications and explain why you thought it was interesting. Allude to a potential research project if you can, but definitely make connections with your experiences and the professor's research interests. At the end of your call or visit, ask if the professor would look over a draft of your statement of purpose. Ultimately, the visit/call puts a face/voice to a name. You need the support of a faculty member to get accepted!

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: RESEARCH, WRITE, RESEARCH, WRITE (Fall of application cycle: Have a draft finished by mid-November)

Congrats! You've made it this far, but here is one of the hardest parts of the application, the statement of purpose. What is it? Essentially, it is a brief calculated summary of your skills as a scientist in addition to experiences have helped you develop as a scientist. DO NOT simply write out your CV in paragraph form. Instead, you want to again think critically about your past experiences and describe exactly how they have shaped the scientist/student you are today. What have you learned from your experiences and how have they developed you? Provide specific examples when possible. Starting off with some sort of experience/anecdote is always good, but don't make it corny and make sure you tie it all together at the end. The final page of your statement of purpose should be a concrete "research proposal" or your interests. Here you want to propose a research project in your potential advisor's lab. Read through the literature to make sure you are asking the right questions. Visit your potential advisor's lab website, pick a research topic, and expand upon it. You may feel like you are making everything up, and that is OK! Admissions committees just want to see that you can think analytically about real scientific questions. It is also a great way for them to evaluate how you are as a writer. One of the professors I was interested in working with told me on the phone that he can teach me the math, science, and computer coding, but he can't teach someone how to be a good writer. Therefore, it MATTERS.

Involve your undergraduate professors and academic advisors! Meeting with them can help you narrow your research ideas and organize your proposal. The basic structure of the research proposal should be: brief introduction paragraph leading into a hypothesis, define your scientific aims and explicitly number them, so it's clear, and finally a short paragraph discussing what you expect and tying your thoughts together. If possible, tie in some type of interdisciplinary component. Not only will it help make your research proposal stand out, but it is good to start thinking more holistically. Often times grant applications for funding require some type of interdisciplinary component, so get used to thinking this way. End with a short paragraph or few sentences about your future plans. Do you want to continue in academia? Work for a non-profit? Just make it clear, don't come off as wavering. If you structure the statement of purpose correctly, all you should have to change is the research proposal for each school.

THE GRE (whenever)

Taking the GRE is required for almost all graduate programs, so just get used to the idea. It is offered fairly often, so timing isn't generally an issue. The GRE is a case-by-case basis. If you have a high GPA, great internship experiences, research experience, international experiences, and a publication, don't worry too much about the GRE because you have already proven yourself. However, your graduate programs may ask for an explanation, so have one ready. (For example, I'm not a good test taker etc...) The GRE provides your program with a metric on how you will potentially perform in graduate school. As a graduate student, you are expected to produce tangibles, so if you have already done that from your experiences, you have proven yourself. If not, study for the GRE. There are plenty of free online study materials, so the key is to dedicate time.

SUBMIT

Your excel file makes organizing due dates easy, so just remember to pay attention and submit! After submitting, email your potential advisor at each school again to let them know that you have submitted and that you look forward to hearing back. The graduate school application process takes time and energy, but it is really important. Don't be afraid to tell your professors that you need to take time to work on it, and make them part of the process. Now you just have to wait! This was the worst part, but in the end it pays off.

**For PhD programs, you may be contacted for a visit which is usually paid for my the program. They will fly you to wherever they are and you generally meet with members of the lab to see if you are the right fit. If you are invited for a visit, it is a good sign because they are paying to fly you to them, so you are on a very short list of potential candidates. Just relax and take the time to ask more questions. This visit is also a chance for you personally to see if the lab would be a good fit. Don't stress.

Good Luck!!!