Ten Things I wish I knew before applying to Grad School
I applied to grad school four out of the last four admissions cycles — I applied for both Ph.D. and M.S. in two separate app cycles and J.D. in one of those. Every one of those cycles was exhaustingly long, and one of them left me without a job plan or grad school offer come spring. Because of those experiences, I learned a great deal about how to apply to graduate programs, and I would like to share that to stop others from making the same mistakes I did. Given my experience, here are ten things I wish I knew before I applied to grad school.
- Don’t do things because they will help you get into grad school.
This is true for most parts of life. If you are joining a club or startup or honor society because it will help you get into school or a job offer, don’t do it. Very often good-on-paper activities are wastes of time. More likely, you will get into a grad program or a job because you show you have passions and did cool things that mattered. With the possible exception of med school (the only type of grad school I have not applied to) no one gets into grad school because of an activity or honor society. They get in because they checked the right boxes in the traditional areas. Do what you love because you love it, not because you have a goal that may not even be what you want when it’s time to go after it.
2. Start early and remember that it’s best not to go where you went to undergrad.
Between GRE/LSAT/MCAT, letters of recommendations, and writing a statement of purpose for every program (or an incredibly generic SOP to be sent to every program), the application process requires a fair amount of legwork. Start preparing early and get your ducks in a row well before deadlines. Professors will take a while to write your rec letters, so make sure you give them time.
That being said, you should also consider switching schools between undergraduate and graduate school or your M.S. and Ph.D. Sometimes, a program will allow you to do a B.S./M.S. or offer easier admissions if you apply to their program. I will say that this is often a poor choice. Part of grad school is the network. If you only go to one school, you have a much more limited network. Further, many programs at prestigious universities are way more lenient on M.S. candidates than undergrad applicants. In general, it’s likely that you can get into a better school than you attended the first time if you wanted to. Plus, graduate school at your undergrad institution is often a repeat of undergrad that ends in a different piece of paper.
3. The admissions committee sees a very limited amount of information.
The admissions committee sees almost nothing about you. In fact, most programs pre-screen using admissions tests or GPA. There’s a chance that you’ll pay $100 to have your graduate admissions application tossed aside because it fell below the benchmark. Even after that, the admissions committee won’t look that intently at your resume or extra information.
They may read your statement of purpose to make sure you are a good fit, but in most cases, admissions committees see four things: test score, GPA and related courses, relevant research experience, and letters of recommendation. Of those, GPA and test scores are used to toss while LORs and research experience are the primary distinguishing factor. Tons of candidates apply with good test scores or GPAs, so you need great recommendations or good research to stand out. To overcome a bad test score or GPA, you need to do a good bit of legwork. The GRE is worth retaking. Yes, the GRE is a dumb test. Yes, it’s stupid that you need a perfect GRE quantitative score of 170 to be average in some fields in some schools. However, it can very often be make or break.
There is an upside to this system though. Because there are only a few things committees look at, if you have those things there is a good chance you are a good candidate everywhere. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have work experience or feel like the smartest in your classes. Those four things are all the committees see. If you have them plus sometimes a specific requirement by discipline — like analysis for econ or strong math for CS — you often will sail through the early parts of the process.
4. A master’s degree is an investment degree. A Ph.D. is a luxury degree.
I remember when I was first considering reapplying for a Ph.D. for Fall 2021 with a fresh memory of being denied by every school in 2019. I work with a lot of Ph.D.’s, and I asked one for advice. He looked at me, and he said, “Well, do you like money?” After I said I did, he looked me dead in the eye and told me to avoid Ph.Ds like the plague.
The truth is that Ph.D.’s are not moneymakers. You take years out of your most productive earning years and usually will not get a salary to compensate. Even if your degree is paid for, you shouldn’t pursue it for money. You get a Ph.D. because you love a field, and you love research.
An M.S., on the other hand, is often a good investment. It’s one credential that takes a couple years and dramatically increases earnings power. Many people think a Ph.D. is just an M.S. on steroids. The reality is that in most fields, an M.S. is considered a terminal professional degree and will provide the money part of the equation much more easily than a Ph.D.
5. Most Ph.D’s are fully funded. Many M.S. degrees are too. Having multiple offers helps you negotiate.
Apply to a lot of schools. This will give you some leverage if you need to negotiate down the road for funding. A Ph.D., unlike an M.S., is funded in pretty much all cases. Try to see if you can get a GRA or GTA. The possibility of receiving an assistantship is the advantage of applying out-of-state, because out-of-state MS students usually are more likely to get assistantship offers.
6. There are a lot of grad programs out there. Unless you only want to be a professor or are in an incredibly prestige-focused field, don’t go after name alone.
M.S. and law degrees are far less selective than most people think. Field-strength matters way more than name recognition. Rankings are more nebulous in grad school. Usually rank by program matters way more than overall rank of the school. This usually gets as granular as program specialty. A school may not be well known for its biology but may have a stellar reputation in neuroscience or molecular biosciences. Because of this, you will want to do some research before.
Also, remember that for professional degrees like M.S. and J.D., you might find you are more competitive for schools that you were boxed out of in undergrad. Definitely apply broadly and add some brand names if you want.
7. Even if you have a Ph.D., you likely will not be a professor. Absolutely do not count on it.
I work with lots of Ph.Ds. I work far away from academia. Most Ph.D.-holders don’t work as a professor, even if they want to. Those that do usually end up hating it. If you only want to teach, a Ph.D. is probably not a stellar choice. It is, after all, a research degree.
8. If you plan to get a Ph.D., don’t get an M.S. first.
Save your money. In most fields, you can go straight to Ph.D., and usually an M.S. does not make a difference in the application process. If you plan to switch fields, need to correct things from undergrad, or are not sure if you want a Ph.D. yet, maybe an M.S. makes sense. Otherwise, go straight to Ph.D.. First year is similar to M.S. anyways.
9. It’s totally fine to switch fields.
If you did liberal arts at Tech for undergrad, you can probably get in pretty much anywhere in a data science or otherwise technical masters within reason. Same thing within and to outside STEM fields. In reality, switching gives you a range of talents, and you are in no way your undergraduate field. It’s totally fine if you need to go a different direction.
10. Don’t take my word for it.
Overall, the most important thing to remember in this process is that pretty much everyone who has done it has done it one, maybe two times. Very rarely does anyone have extensive experience with the process. Ask around and figure out what people in your field experience. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
