4 Simple Steps to Get Grad School Ready
Is graduate school on your radar? Even if your answer is “not yet” or “I’m not sure,” it’s a good idea to spend some undergrad time making sure you’re grad school ready if and when the time comes. Some students step on campus already following a pre-med or pre-law path, complete with a list of prerequisite classes, campus organizations, and admissions activities throughout their experience. But for others, grad school may not be top of mind until graduation nears…or even a few years after graduation.
For those who decide to pursue graduate school late in the game, the biggest stress becomes the timeline: can they meet application deadlines that will let them begin with the next group of new students, or will they have to wait a full year before they’re ready? It’s not at all uncommon for grad school aspirants to realize that it will take time to fulfill requirements–entrance exams, prerequisite courses–and that their plans may have to wait.
But you don’t have to know for certain you’re applying to a particular program to get started. There are many things you can do now to ensure that, if you do make that decision to pursue a graduate program, that option is fully open to you whenever you choose it. Here are some things you should do as an undergraduate, and the reasons they’re important for your future graduate school options.
1. Attend on-campus info sessions and networking events
Being on campus has some big advantages that you might not notice until you’ve left. For example, two groups of people have a vested interest in giving you lots of information about graduate school: your career guidance office wants to maximize job and grad school placement rates, and graduate schools want to attract applicants. So on a busy campus, you’ll likely find info sessions, job fairs, or grad school fairs every week.
Importantly, even if you don’t know what you want to do, you can get a lot out of attending. Different institutions and career paths will give you their sales pitch of who tends to thrive there and why, and you can learn a lot from classmates who are becoming committed to that path: what questions are they asking? What criteria are they using for their decision? And what questions can you ask them to get a feel for why you might want to consider the same track?
These opportunities come up frequently while you’re in school and sparsely afterward. So, in fact, the best time to take advantage is when you aren’t quite sure what you want to do with your life post-graduation: because you’re on a campus with lots of bright, hardworking students, the opportunities are coming to find you, whereas not too far in the future the burden will shift to you to go find them.
2. Take entrance exams
In the midst of a busy semester, the idea of signing up for one more exam–and one you may not even need to take, at that–isn’t likely at the top of your list. But one of the biggest barriers to graduate school applications can be that admissions test: finding the time and opportunity to take it, putting in the effort to post a top score, and–particularly if you decide to apply a few years after you’ve left school–getting back into “test taking shape.”
Generally speaking, standardized test scores are good for several (usually 5) years, so when you have a light schedule, a long break between semesters, or a summer job that isn’t mentally taxing, you can do your future self a massive favor by taking the admissions tests that apply to programs you think may interest you. Your study and test-taking skills will never be better than they are while you’re a college student, so you’ll prime yourself for peak performance, and you’ll remove a giant barrier from the admissions process. So even if you’re unsure of what type of program you’d even consider applying to, getting a strong GRE score to have in your back pocket is a terrific way to have a running start when the time comes.
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3. Create a list of programs and requirements
The biggest roadblock you might face in applying to a graduate program comes in the form of unique program requirements. The requirements to get into a new school can differ significantly from the requirements to graduate from your current one–even if you’re in a related major. Some programs have a complete list of prerequisite classes they want to see, or certain grades expected within that set of courses. Others want to see relevant work or internship experience. Many have requirements for letters of recommendation: perhaps from a professor in a certain major, or from someone who has supervised your work in a certain field. You may need to supply a portfolio, or research, or any number of things that go far beyond an application form, transcript, and personal statement.
Now, if that sounds daunting, it doesn’t have to be. Some students decide late in the game to completely redo their career plans, and so they’ll take an entire semester or year of additional coursework to be ready. That’s not ideal, of course, but it’s expected.
What’s truly frustrating, however, is when you’re one or two checklist items away from application-ready…and they’re things you could have easily done had you known they were a priority. It’s cases where a school requires that at least one of your history credits be related to a non-Western course, or one of your science electives having a research component–you chose course 343 when course 351 would have satisfied the requirement. Or it’s a case where you never prioritized going to office hours because you didn’t have specific questions–and now you need a professor's recommendation and don’t really know if any of your favorite profs know you personally enough to write one.
So as you encounter programs you think might be appealing, keep a list or spreadsheet of the requirements that stand out. You don’t need to spend your whole college career chasing prerequisites you may never need, but as you choose between electives, summer jobs, or “office hours vs. a nap,” you can use that list as a guide to help make decisions that might otherwise seem arbitrary.
4. Seek out internships, job shadowing, and volunteer opportunities
There’s a famous story about an outgoing U.S. president, while leaving his successor’s inauguration, calling an intelligence officer to check on a situation he had been handling. “I’m sorry, Mr. President,” came the reply. “But that’s classified.” Newscasters love telling that story during inaugurations to highlight how quickly the perks of a presidency go away–and something similar happens with a college graduation.
When you’re a student, a lot of doors open up to you. Organizations love to boast about their college internship and job shadowing programs. Alumni love to give back to their alma mater by networking with students. “I’m a student at…” just carries a lot more weight when it comes to opening doors than “I recently graduated from…”
So take advantage, and do it soon. If there are careers or programs you might consider, find alumni on LinkedIn who are doing just that and see if they’ll have you along. Talk to your career office about finding short-term opportunities to experience that profession. Ask about sitting in on classes in that program at your university to see what it’s like, or visit one of those professors’ office hours.
There are a lot of graduate programs to choose from, and all of them will do their best to look great on a website or brochure. While you’re a student, you have significantly greater access to find out what they’re really like.
If you’re a student today, there’s a good chance you’ll be a student a few years from now, too–even if you don’t have concrete plans for that right now. With a handful of simple steps, you can make sure that the door to grad school remains open to you when you want it to be.
