A lot of undergraduates don’t necessarily plan on attending graduate school. You may have a career in mind, or even already lined up, that will take you into the workforce directly after you graduate. Or you might simply not have the desire or see the need for further formal education. However, graduate school can come up unexpectedly. You might discover an advanced degree is more helpful than you realized for your specific career path, or you could end up on a career path you never saw coming and decide more education is for the best. You might even just decide you want to spend a little more time in school after you’ve been out for a year!
All this is to say a lot of students can’t completely rule out graduate school until a few years after college, when “real life” is really underway. And this is a good reason to spend some time preparing for the possibility of grad school when you’re still an undergrad, even if you don’t have specific plans to apply. Here are a few ways to go about it.
Get a Feel For The Schools
In high school, the process of looking at colleges can be kind of fun. You may have visited campuses with your family or friends, you likely spoke to counselors and teachers about options, and depending on your school you may have even had college fairs or a regional tour to look at schools. Once you’re in college looking at prospective grad school programs, however, there has to be a little more initiative from your end; it’s no longer a required and automatically facilitated process.
This means it’s your responsibility to get a feel for any schools you may be interested in, even if you’re leaning against further formal education. This is obviously going to help you gain your own perspective on the options. However, a discussion at USA Today about designing a compelling grad school statement also notes that being able to point to details and specifics about a school or program is helpful in the application as well. In a way, a grad school application can be more personal than an undergrad one. If and when you apply, being able to display that you’ve taken the time to gain an understanding of the school and program can go a long way. You can’t start this process too early, so if you believe grad school is even a remote possibility, take advantage of any resources you may have to get to know the schools.
Seek Out Assistance
As mentioned previously, applying to graduate school requires a little bit more initiative on your part than your undergraduate applications likely did. In many high school situations, there are people around you helping you stay up-to-date and engaged with the process. In college, the closest thing you’ll get to this is a professor or advisor asking if you’ve thought about graduate school. The decision and the actual work are entirely up to you, but that doesn’t mean help isn’t there if you ask for it.
Many undergraduates may not realize that there are specific coaching and instruction programs out there for assisting with graduate school applications. Sometimes, there’s a perception that specific people and services can help only with individual aspects of an application. For instance, a professor can help with a recommendation, a counselor can help with school selection, and so on. But an introduction at Menlo Coaching reveals that some of these external coaching and instruction programs can assist you with the whole process, including finding schools that suit you, securing the best recommendations, and even writing the most effective essay. Opening yourself up to a program like that can make the process a little bit more natural, and less of a hassle or obligation.
Get Close To Professors
Depending on when you apply to grad school (if you do at all), you may have different options as to who could write your recommendations. If you’re working for a few years before you apply, a boss and/or supervisor at work could be one of your best options. Generally, you’ll want at least one of your former professors to have a voice in the process, and you need to establish that relationship while you can.
That means more than simply doing good work in class and having an occasional passing conversation with the professor. In a list of tips at Washington University’s career center, it’s recommended that students take advantage of office hours to help develop these relationships. And while that sounds like easy advice, it’s some of the most important advice in the whole process. Many students don’t realize until it’s too late that they could have been spending more time learning from and getting to know professors outside of ordinary class hours. Take the time to do this with a few professors who teach the courses you focus most on, and you’ll likely end up in a better position to secure strong recommendations.
Your grad school application will involve more work than just these ideas. But if you’re uncertain about applying, the above suggestions can help you to lay the groundwork. They may also help you make up your mind about whether or not you actually want to attend graduate school.
Sara Upton is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about topics related to employment, fitness, and technology. You can keep up with her work via her Twitter (@saraupton33).