34: Advice for 2020 Grad School Applicants

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hello everyone. Today I am going to be recording a quick episode on advice for the upcoming 2020 grad school admission cycle. Before I get started, I just wanted to let you know that I am going to be transitioning to publishing episodes on a bi weekly basis. I had been doing weekly episodes before, but now that I'm getting closer to my due date with my pregnancy, I think it's more realistic for me to do these recordings on a bi weekly basis. I may even go back to doing shorter episodes, instead of half an hour, maybe ten, fifteen minute episodes. For now, I just want to share some advice that I've been giving to some of the students that I've been working with this summer who are planning to apply to grad school this fall.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Before talking about what you need to do from now until that your upcoming deadlines in the fall, I want you to really think about what your goals are. What are your goals for grad school? Where do you hope to go? When do you hope to start grad school? Are you planning to go straight into a Ph.D program? Do you want to get a Master's degree? What are your long term career goals? Are they aligned with the applications that you are looking into? Is your career goal one that even requires an advanced degree? And if it does, is it just a Master's or do you need to get a Ph.D? So start to think about those things, because that is then going to inform how you finalize your grad school list.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Right now, ideally, since it's August, I think that everybody who's plans to apply to grad school in the fall, should have a graduate school list with eight to twelve schools on that list, a list of faculty that you'd like to work with from each of those schools. Now is the time to be reaching out to those professors as prospective advisors, that way you can contact them to see if they're even accepting students this year. Reach out to them about your shared research interests, and the fact that you plan to apply to their program to work with them. Now is also the time to reach out for advice from graduate students at those programs, from postdocs at those programs. It's completely acceptable to reach out to folks who you don't know, to ask them for insight to see whether or not that is even a school worth applying for.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now's also the time to really do a close reading or close analysis of the websites to see what information is the website missing? What's left out? What do you still need to find out, and who do you contact to get those answers? Typically, if it's an administrative question, a question about page numbers, about the application portal, you can reach out to the graduate advisor or some sort of staff member for that department and for that program. If it's related to research, if it's related to maybe a lab or a particular individual you want to work with, then reach out to them.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I also want to stress the importance of securing three strong recommendation letter writers. You want to have a list of the three recommenders who are going to be writing your letters. Perhaps even four people if you want to have a backup person, because every once in a while, you might have three recommenders and one person might miss the deadline. Hopefully not. That's a nightmare scenario, but it does on occasion happen. So you want to have a list of three to four people, and ideally have them be in your department or in your area of interest. When you are asking them for recommendation letters, make sure that you let them know that you're going to provide them with a letter of recommendation packet. That packet can include a copy of your application essays- so your statement of purpose and your personal statement and they can be drafts. It's fine if they're first drafts. They don't have to be perfect or polished. It's just so that they have some information about you. That packet should also have a copy of your CV. If you're in the humanities and social sciences, it would be nice if that packet includes a writing sample, but it's not necessary. The other thing that packet does require is a list of the schools you're applying to, and your own internal deadlines. I don't recommend giving them the actual deadline of the school. I recommend setting your own deadline that's a week to two weeks earlier than that deadline, just to make sure they get their letters in on time. Now, late August- well, not late August yet, but from now through even next month is a good time to reach out to your recommenders to ask them if they'll write for you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All right, what other advice do I have? When you're looking at your graduate school list, you want to have a good range of schools. So you want to have top programs in your field, like the top ten in your field, so long as you have faculty that you know are a good fit for you. You also want to have some schools and the top twenty, or maybe not as competitive- top thirty, top forty- that are still a good fit for you. You want to have a wide range, just so that you have options. The same goes with regard to locations. You want to think about broadening your range of schools so that it's not just schools- let's say you're from Cali, which most of my students are from SoCal. You want to think outside of just the Southern California region, and expand your schools to include other areas. Then lastly, you want to do your research about the funding that's available. This is especially critical if you're applying to Master's programs. For PhDs, generally, you're probably going to get fully funded and I don't recommend going into a PhD program unless you have full funding. For Masters, it gets a little more difficult to secure funding, so you want to find out early on what are some of the financial options. You can do that by checking out their website, by contacting grad students, checking out the CVs of recent grad students to see what funding sources, what scholarships, fellowships, did they get.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, other things to consider when you're looking at your programs is, if you're looking at a PhD program, do they provide a Master's along the way? Do these programs require the GRE? I know that more and more programs are either not requiring it, or they're not placing a strong emphasis on the GRE this year. Are you in a field where you're required to take a GRE Subject Test? If so, do you have to take that. You know, if you're in chem and physics and literature, you might have a subject test that you need to take. If you're interested in interdisciplinary research, and you're looking at interdisciplinary programs, you want to pay close attention to what department that program is housed under and if they ask for special requirements when you apply. You also want to think about, do they have assume that you have certain preparation? Are you required to take certain courses, or have knowledge of certain software by the time you apply? Are there any unusual requirements in the application, like some of them might ask you for a course list, or they might ask you to record yourself. They might ask for a portfolio. These are things that you'll want to know in advance, that way you can stay organized and prepare in advance.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

From here through the next month, I think there are a couple things that you really should prioritize. One of them is what I mentioned before, finalizing your grad school list. When you're in doubt, make sure you reach out to a professor in your field to have them review it and vet it for you. Contacting potential faculty advisors from the schools on your list. This is the time to do that. If you're in STEM, it's a requirement. You're expected to do that. If you're in the humanities and social sciences, it's not a requirement, but it's strongly encouraged and it does help you out. A lot of times students, they're dealing with impostor syndrome. They're questioning themselves. They think that if they reach out to professors, they're going to figure out that you don't know enough or they're going to try to grill you. Honestly, it can only help you, not hurt you. Because even if it's not the most comfortable conversation with this individual, you'll figure out if you have a good rapport with this person, that this person is even someone that you get along with and want to work with. Your thoughts on them matter too. Now's the time to request recommendation letters, like I mentioned earlier, so reach out to three professors that you know. And now is the time to study and take the GRE exam, if you're expected to take it to take- to take the GRE regular, the general exam and the subject exam. So those are four things- grad school list, contacting potential advisors, contacting recommendation letter writers, and studying and taking the GRE.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I also wanted to share some advice based on a webinar that I attended by- it was from the Council of Opportunity in Education. They had deans from universities across the US who oversee the grad admissions process, and they were sharing their advice to students on how they're approaching the admissions process this year. One thing that they all agreed on across the board is that they are de-emphasizing the GRE. That doesn't mean it's not required. You still have to check each website and each program to see if it's required. But generally speaking, even if it is required, a lot of programs are not going to place a strong emphasis on it anymore. At least not this year, in light of COVID and everything else going on. They're also going to be more flexible with pass grading, pass/ fail grading. More students this year than usual had to take classes on a pass/fail grading scale, and so they're going to be flexible so long as you pass the class. Obviously, failing a class is not going to be the greatest thing. With regard to your GPA, it's not going to be a deal breaker, so long as you can show evidence that you've been doing research, that you can show evidence that you've developed a good relationship with faculty or with the people who are writing you your letters. If you have strong letters, and a good record of research, your GPA should not hold you back from getting into graduate school.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

One thing that a lot of students have been wondering is, will we still get funded? Will they take away my funding if I get into grad school? They mentioned that funding packages will be honored. So if you apply to a PhD program, you get a fully funded package, it's in writing- that will be honored in most cases. You will not get your funding taken away. This year, they anticipate no travel for interviews and for open houses. That means that in the winter, in January, February, March, when students are usually doing interviews or visiting campuses, everything's going to be done online. That means that it's going to open up more slots for online interviews, so you may have more interviews than students in previous years who apply to Master's and PhD programs. You might notice they might add some special sections to application portals, like a section where they allow you to explain how the pandemic has affected you and your circumstances, or how the pandemic affected your research. What a lot of them are looking for is they're trying to look for students who are being resilient, and creative and continuing their research in some way, shape or form despite the pandemic. So even if your lab was closed, even if you no longer had access to a certain population, even if you weren't able to do field work, how did you resolve that issue and move forward with your research? How did you research shift and change?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

One thing that is also a big concern, obviously, with regard to the ongoing pandemic is that feeling of making sure that you are safe and healthy. That is a big concern for prospective applicants. It's a big concern for my listeners, because generally speaking, most of you are first gen, most of you are low income. It might be your first time moving away from family or moving out of state. So what can you do to ensure your own health and safety? What they recommend is to reassure yourself to reach out and look at the university's pandemic safety plan. Every university has one, so see how they've been reacting to the pandemic. You can also check out the state's pandemic safety plans, and see how is the state doing with regard to their numbers and making sure that their population is relatively safe, or managing that curve. So when in doubt, make sure that you look into that as well.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, I actually have some examples of scenarios of what some students have gone through in prior years. I guess I can cover a few of them, and that will be that will be it for today. I just want to remind students that when you're applying to grad school, you may or may not get in, or you may actually be placed on a waitlist and being placed on a waitlist is not the end of the world. I have witnessed students who were on waitlist- one student in particular, was waitlisted at her top choice school, had been admitted to several other programs, decided to wait to find out if she got off the waitlist. She did get off the waitlist within days before the deadline to accept or reject her offers, so a few days before April 15. When she got off, the waitlist turns out she was accepted, got a full six year package, one of the best funding offers, and at the end of the day was able to go to her top choice school. She wouldn't have had that option had she turned down the waitlist and said that she didn't want to be on the waitlist, and accepted another offer. We are glad that she waited and held off until she found out what the status was of her waitlist.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

We have had another student, or more than one student actually, who had issues with their GPA. Their GPA continuously being below 3.0, struggling every quarter. But did stellar research, had very good many relationships with mentors, and applied to a wide range of postbacc programs. With one of the postback programs that he was admitted to, he was able to then enter that postbacc, join a cohort of master's students, complete his master's, and then apply for the Ph.D program at that same institution. Now he's getting his PhD. That's an example of how the GPA doesn't necessarily always make or break your ability to get into a competitive program. We've also seen students that apply to both master's and PhD programs, and then only got into a master's program. But this student in particular, got into a master's program. Then after finding out about that found out that he got NSF funding. Thanks to the NSF funding, he was able to get his master's degree funded and he applied for the Ph.D. Program at the same institution where he got his master's, and was able to stay and continue for his PhD. That worked out well for him too, started with the master's, and then continued on with the PhD.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I have also seen students who really have been anxious and resistant to reach out to faculty, and I had one student who only reached out to maybe two or three people because she was so nervous, and she needed my help and support and needed me to help her click the button to press send to reach out to professors. One of those professors actually, they developed such a good rapport that he offered to review her essays in advance before even applying. We later found out that that same professor, after meeting with her was so excited about her and her work that he advocated for her to have a slot in their program. I'm not sure that she would have gotten into that school if she hadn't reached out. That's why I strongly encourage you to contact professors, even if you're intimidated because you never know when you are going to make a good connection with someone.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then there are students who, at the last minute, realize that they want to switch fields. Maybe it's too late to switch majors, but they know they want to switch fields for grad school. We had one student who all along throughout undergrad was interested in getting a PhD and MD, a joint degree, and wanted to do cancer research. Then at the last minute, decided actually he was more interested in engineering. So with no engineering experience, he managed to apply to Master's programs and got in to a very good Master's program. I think it worked out because he did a really good job of writing in his essays how it was that the cancer research eventually and all the background that he had on that led to him realizing that he wanted to do engineering. And how that work actually overlaps- the cancer work with the engineering work that he hopes to do in the future, and what he was doing to prepare for our engineering program. So he had a plan set in stone of what courses and software and things that he was going to be working on to prepare for the master's degree, so that worked out for him.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Those are just a few examples of students who maybe- and I have other examples of students who had stellar GPAs, stellar GRE scores, got into great programs, lots of options. But realistically, most of us are not that student. I know I wasn't a 4.0 student. I was a 3.49 student. I didn't get in everywhere, and yet it still worked out. I still got into a Ph.D. program. I still completed my PhD, and I'm still doing what I love to do right now. So I want to be more realistic about some of the not so ideal scenarios that still somehow worked out. That's all I have to say for today. I hope that you find this helpful as you're preparing to submit your applications for this very interesting fall 2020 admission cycle. I'm happy to hear from you as you go through that process, so feel free to reach out. Have a good rest of the day. Bye bye.