32: Getting Ready for Grad School

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hi, everyone. This week's episode is a little late. My apologies. But today I am excited to talk to you about how to get ready for grad school, all the things that you should know and do the summer before you apply to to grad school. This is an episode in particular for those of you that are planning to apply to PhD and Master's programs starting this fall.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So, we'll start with your preparation thus far. Ideally, if you're thinking of going to graduate school, at this point, you have had some exposure to research. It'd be great if you have had some experience conducting research under the direction of a faculty mentor. Hopefully you have developed positive relationships with other faculty members, because these are the individuals you're going to try to think of as your recommenders. You're going to ask them for letters of recommendation. If you are a little bit worried about that- maybe let's say you have taken some time off from undergrad, or maybe you don't feel like you have developed strong relationships with professors. Maybe you didn't go to office hours as much. It's okay. What I would recommend is to go back, review your transcripts, see what classes you did well in, in your field and your major. Go ahead and contact those folks. Believe it or not, if you have a very strong application packet, if you draft your materials in advance and provide your recommenders with everything that they will need to write you a strong letter, you should still be okay and still be able to identify three recommenders.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The other thing that ideally you've done up to this point is drafted a graduate school list, so that at this stage, you are revising and finalizing it. Hopefully you have a competitive GPA. Although that's not the end of the world if you don't. Similarly, hopefully you have an okay GRE. I say, okay, because in a lot of fields, the GRE score is not the most important factor in your application. There are still some disciplines that require a very specific minimum score, but more often than not- and every year, I hear about more programs, departments, and even universities as a whole that are letting go of the GRE requirement. Which is great, because if you've heard me talk about the GRE, I believe it's a very classist system and I don't believe in standardized testing. It's just countless studies have shown that there's no indication to say that if you do well on the GRE, you are going to be a successful grad student. All right. So let's say that you have considered everything that you should have done up to this point. You have your grad school list. You have had some research experience. You have an idea of who your three recommenders are. You've studied and taken the GRE, or you're studying and plan to take the GRE before the summer ends.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then, what should you be doing this summer? Well, one of the things that you should be doing is finalizing your graduate school list. How do you know if your grad school list is final? Or how do you know that you're confident in your grad school list? Well, there are a couple of things you want to consider. You want to consider the location of the schools in your program. Realistically, is this a place you're gonna go to? Are you really going to go to Ohio or Kansas or Texas or whatever state your program is in that may be different from where you're from? You want to think very seriously if you're willing to move, and I do strongly encourage folks to move and to get out of their comfort zone. But I understand for a lot of folks, especially for my students who are from California, it's really hard for them to envision themselves going out of state, and going from the West Coast to the East Coast. But also when it comes to the location, it's not just about a new space. It's also about- for my students who are mostly students of color- how safe do you feel in that space? Is that space a highly racist space? Is it a very white supremacist space? Those are things that you should take seriously, because while some universities are great universities, they might be in a red state. They might be in a space where you as a person of color, or as a Black student, do not feel safe. The same goes for students in the LGBTQIA+ community. You know, there are some places where you in your body do not feel safe. You may feel threatened by the community, or the surrounding area where that college or university is located. So keep location in mind.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Also think about the intellectual environment. What is the campus culture like? What is the departmental and program culture like? Is it a friendly, collegial environment, or is it a very competitive, cold environment? Is the program fairly interdisciplinary and comfortable with innovation and doing research that's out of the box? Or is it more of a traditional, more conservative program? Those are things to keep in mind, because that's going to inform your research. That's also going to inform your career.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Think about the reputation of the department and faculty. Unfortunately, there are some departments that are infamous, because of faculty who have done things that- maybe they were harassing students, maybe they were exploiting students. Those are things to keep in mind. The other thing when it comes to the reputation of department and faculty that you want to think about is, you know, some departments will have a good number of very prominent scholars, rockstar academics. That's always good. It's always a great thing to have an advisor or a committee member who's really well known in your field. But aside from that, when it comes to reputation, who are the folks that are very supportive? Who are the folks that are great mentors, and femtors? Those are the people you're trying to identify and secure as your advisors, because they're the ones that are going to really help advocate for you and your career.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You should also take a look at the demographics of the students, both the demographics within the program, within the department, within the university as a whole. But I would say especially the demographics of the program, because that's going to be your cohort. That's going to be the direct experience that's going to shape you. So you want to take a look at what's the percentage- what's the ethnic and racial breakdown? What's the percentage of women versus men, and all the other identities that are of importance to you? It can be different in in a wide range of departments. My department was predominantly white. It was predominantly female. It was predominantly queer, because I was in a theater and performance studies department. That may not be the case- your department may be predominantly white and male, or it may be predominantly people of color, depending on your area, on your discipline. That's something to consider.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You also want to make sure that you are interested in the work of more than one professor in that department. I would not recommend putting all your eggs in one basket, and only having one person that you're interested in working with, even if they're the perfect person for you to work with, if their work is precisely what you want to do. I say that because people retire, people change jobs, people move. Unfortunately, in some cases, people pass. So if that person leaves or that person is gone, then what? Who are you left to work with? That's why you want to have two to three people that you can work with in that program. You also want to take a look at what is the focus of that program? Does that department predominantly focus on grad students, or do they predominantly focus on undergrads? And is that something that you're comfortable wit, because if they predominantly focus on grad students, great. There might be more resources for you, but also there might be fewer TA opportunities, fewer funding opportunities.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You want to take a look at the faculty publishing record. This again ties to back to the reputation of the department. Aside from that, where are students getting jobs? What's the placement record of that department? What are the attrition and retention rates? Are a lot of folks leaving, or a lot of folks graduating? Are they graduating on time, or are they taking nine, ten years to graduate? That goes to show you how much support the students are getting. Unfortunately, the longer some students take, in some cases, it indicates that there's less funding for them and less support for them. That's why it takes them longer.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then lastly, you want to think about the social environment, both within the program and within that community, within the area that the university is in. Do you want to be in a small town in the middle of nowhere, where you may feel a little bit more isolated? Do you want to be in a big city? I know for a lot of my students, they really want to be in big cities where there's a lot going on, a lot to do, a lot of people of color around. But at the same time right now, with the pandemic, some folks are trying to stay away from big cities just for their own personal health and safety. That's just something to consider. Do you necessarily need a big city and a lot to do and a big social life? Or are you comfortable with slightly more of an isolated feeling in that area?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All right. Let's keep going. I also want to talk about what your application is going to look like in the fall. So what are the main components of most graduate school applications? The first thing is, there is an application portal and an application form and you're going to need to open one up for each and every school that you're applying to. Unlike applying to undergrad where you might have one portal and you can apply to multiple UCs or multiple CSUs, that's not necessarily the case for grad school. And just a heads up, these application portals tend to open up end of August, early September. I tell my students to check September 1st. That's the date that for many programs, their portals are up to date. They can go in, sign up, create a username and password for each of the schools in their grad school list.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You'll need an essay, sometimes multiple essays. At the very least, you'll need a statement of purpose. If you don't know what goes in to a statement of purpose, go ahead and check out a previous episode of mine in that topic. I also have an episode on the personal statement and diversity statement that you can check out. Those are the other two essays you may be required to write for grad school apps. You will need typically, three letters of recommendation ideally from faculty in your field. If you're a community college student, it can be a professor. One of the three can be from a community college professor that knows you very well. And it's okay to have maybe one from a professor that you conducted research with, one from a professor that you took a class and did well in, and perhaps another one from someone who knows you a little bit more personally, can speak to your personal growth.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You will need your exam scores, that is the GRE and in some cases, the GRE Subject Tests. If you're in a particular field, like physics, chemistry, literature, there are others. You will want to check to see if the programs in your grad school list require a subject exam. If so, you're going to need to take both the GRE and the GRE Subject Test. What's annoying about the subject test is that they only offer that test three times a yea, and so you want to make sure that you sign up for the that test quickly so that you don't miss out because they do fill up fast. You'll need a copy of your transcripts. If you're a current undergrad, if you're taking summer sessions, you'll want to wait until your summer session grades come in to send your transcripts. But if not, you can send your transcripts as soon as possible, as soon as you open up the portal in September.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You'll need to keep in mind the application fees for each of the programs. Each program you know it may be $90, $100, $120 to apply per program. I know that's a lot. So just something to keep in mind as you do your budgeting for each of your schools. When it comes to fees and budgeting, there are other hidden costs. Aside from applying or the application fee, you may be asked to submit transcripts and that is a fee for each of the transcripts that you send. Sometimes they ask you to send more than one copy per school. Then there's also fees involved when you send your GRE scores to each school. That's why it's really important, as soon as you can, to try to create a budget, and realistically think about how many programs you can afford to apply for, or if you can save your money now in preparation for the fall to make sure that you can apply to a good number of schools. Not just two or three, but you know, maybe eight or 10 schools.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The other thing, if you're in the humanities and social sciences, you will be asked to submit a writing sample. There may be supplemental materials depending on your field. They may ask you for your lab hours. They may ask you for a portfolio, a demo. Sometimes they ask for you to record yourself, either doing the work that you do- if you're teaching or if you're performing. Keep that in mind. All right, let's keep going.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So what should you do this summer? This summer, you should be finalizing your graduate school list. You should be finding and opening up your application forms. You should be emailing the staff of each department- usually they are called graduate advisors- with any logistical questions you have about the portal, about the documents you need to submit, about deadlines. You can start to contact faculty and meet with them. This is a requirement in STEM. If you're in STEM, you should be contacting professors, asking them if they are admitting students for this upcoming cycle, and if they're accepting students, specifically. If you're in the humanities and social sciences, it's not a requirement, but it's recommended and can only help you, not hurt you. I know it's intimidating. But it's a good thing to do to get to know the people that you're hoping to work with. So you can contact them anytime this summer. Now is a great time to start reaching out, especially because they're done with the previous admission cycle. You can also contact graduate students, and have them share their experiences in the program. Graduate students are great because they're going to be honest with you about what it's like to work with the professors that they work with, what the department is like, what the support is like, what are the funding opportunities like there. If you want an honest opinion, reach out to grad students.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And in the summer has a good time to decide whether or not you want to retake the GRE. I don't usually recommend students retake the GRE, unless you do one of two things. Unless one, you're at the cuff or cusp of the next bracket of scores, so if you're 139 trying to reach the 140s, 149 trying to reach the 150s, 159 trying to reach the 160s. Then yes, go ahead and retake the test. The other thing you need to make sure that you do if you're going to retake the test is that you are implementing a different study strategy. If you plan to study the exact same way, when you retake the test, most likely you're going to get the same score, or even possibly a lower score. So definitely, if you plan to retake it, it's because you're really close to the next bracket and you're switching up your study strategy.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, so for those of you that are required to submit a writing sample- these are required for PhD programs in humanities and social science fields. You want to pay close attention to the length and the subject of the writing sample. Some programs will want longer samples, anywhere from 25 pages over. Others will want short samples. They'll ask for no more than 10 pages. It's really important that you pay close attention to the different page lengths and you meet that requirement. Don't send a program that wants 10 pages, 25 pages. They're not going to like that. They're not going to read that. And some of them specifically want a research writing sample, a research paper, and others are less restrictive on the topic. They might be open to you submitting more creative work, or a paper that you wrote for a class. That's something again, to keep in mind. When in doubt, you contact the graduate advisor or the staff person about it. Once you know which piece you're going to submit as a writing sample for your program- there may be different writing samples per program. You'll want to make sure that you make time to revise and proofread it and have at least one professor or someone who's an expert in your field review the writing sample. Just to vet it, make sure that the research is okay, that it looks good, that there are no red flags in the sample.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, let's talk about the general admissions timeline, what to expect from the fall onward. Like I said earlier, late August, early September, that's when online applications will open up. In October, that's when the National Science Foundation Fellowship Program deadlines are due. A lot of our students tend to apply to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program for funding. They also tend to apply for the Ford fellowship. Then there are others like the Paul and Daisy Soros fellowship that some of our students apply for. Those are deadlines to keep in mind, but the NSF comes up rather quickly in October, it's usually end of October. Then some programs may have early deadlines, early admission deadlines in mid November. But for the most part, most PhD programs will have deadlines December 1st through December 15th. Master's programs will extend. They'll go beyond December, into January, February, March, even as late as June of the next year. But if you're predominantly focusing on PhD programs, you will be done applying by mid December. Every once in a while there might be December 30th deadlines, which are super annoying because it's during the winter break and a lot of things and offices are closed at that time. But just keep in mind, most of them will be due by mid December. The Ford fellowship is also due around mid December. And in January, that's when you've submitted your PhD applications and departments start to nominate applicants for central fellowships. As they're reviewing applications, shortlisting students deciding who they want to admit, they also need to nominate students for funding because when they admit you, they're going to want to let you know if they can offer you any funding that comes from the university or from their department.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

January and February, you will start to hear admissions notifications. January is very early, but I'm seeing it happen more and more each year. Sometimes they don't necessarily admit you, but they're contacting you to interview you. Just this last cycle, there were a lot more Skype and zoom interviews. We still had some campus visits. I don't know how it's gonna look like with the pandemic, if we're gonna have or see students get campus visits. Travel is a little unpredictable right now. But I am certain that there will still be interviews, even if they're over zoom. That will happen January, February, even into March. If by March, you haven't heard anything in terms of a yes or no for the programs you apply to, that is a good time to reach out to them. You are entitled to ask for an update on the status of your application in early March, if you haven't heard anything. April 15th is then the deadline for students to submit their Statement of Intent to Register, so for students to SIR. By April 15th, you'll know what your funding is. You'll know who has said yes and no to you, and you should be making a decision of where you're going to go. May 1st is the final application deadline for some departments, especially for Master's programs. By May 15th, that's usually when students who have SIR-d confirm their registration. That's when you start to get your student ID number and your email etc. By June 1st, graduate divisions will ask her final admissions decisions for any outstanding SIRs, but that's much later. Usually they expect you to do this by April 15th. May, June, that's when you're starting to feel like you're officially an enrolled student.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now I have some advice for the fall. I know I'm catering it to undergrads, because these are the kinds of workshops I give to my students who are currently enrolled and taking classes, while at the same time applying to grad school. I usually tell them to take a lighter course load, to take no more than the minimum that's required to be a full time student. Tor us, that's twelve units. I say that because applying to grad school is like taking on another upper division course. It's like taking on a part time job. It is time intensive. I also encourage them to take a lighter load when it comes to extracurricular commitments. If they have an officer position, or some sort of commitment where they are required to- if they have some sort of leadership position basically. I tell them it's okay to step back, to say no to some commitments, and it's temporary. You don't have to completely step back permanently. It can just be for a matter of weeks, or for the quarter. Same goes with part time jobs. Talk to your supervisors, see if there's any way that you can reduce your hours. If you're working twenty hours, can you reduce to ten. If you're working ten hours a week can you reduce to five. And when in doubt, if you can't cut back on any commitments, at the very least, you should be setting aside four to five hours a week for working on your applications in addition to everything else that you have going on.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think that is all want to say about the fall. As I mentioned earlier, your deadlines are going to come up fairly quick, especially for those of us in the quarter system. This year, we start the quarter system in October, which means as soon as the quarter starts all of a sudden, right then and there, NSF applications are due. Early admission deadlines are coming up. Then we've got the holidays and just everything happens so quickly, that it's important to get organized and do as much as you can this summer to prepare yourself. So that by fall, you have solid drafts of your applications. You're just making slight revisions or edits. By fall, you're opening up portals, submitting things like your transcripts and CV and GRE scores right away.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then ideally, you want to apply a week or two before the deadline. I say that because you want to give your recommenders an earlier deadline than the actual deadline, so that if any of them mess up and are late, you won't actually be late in submitting and having them send that letter of rec because you gave them an earlier deadline. Same goes for yourself. It gives you a little bit more leeway, more legroom. In some cases, portals start to freeze or shut down close to the deadline, especially if it's like a midnight deadline, midnight eastern time deadline which is going to be 9pm for my West Coast students. Some students wait until the minute of to submit things. If the system crashes, as soon as that deadline comes up, the portal is going to close. You're not going to be able to submit things, and that is a nightmare that sometimes happens, the nightmare of missing the deadline or the nightmare of your recommender missing the deadline. That's why, go ahead- when you work on your grad school list, make those deadlines earlier for yourself, for your recommenders, so that this process can be as smooth as possible. That's all I have to say about applying to grad school and preparing this summer, what to watch out for, what you need to know and do. I hope that you found this helpful, and I will talk to you all next time.