37: How to determine if a grad program is a right fit for you?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hi everyone. Today I am going to be talking about how to determine if a graduate program is a right fit for you. This was actually a request from someone on Instagram. Essentially, on Wednesday, September 9, I asked on Instagram, what kind of topics would you like me to cover in the month of October, November, December? Throughout the month of September, I am recording episodes that will go on through the end of my maternity leave. I'm going to go on maternity leave from mid October through the end of December. Then I'll be back at work and back doing my regular podcast episodes after that. So for now, I'm trying to front load that work.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I want to say thank you to my followers, just because I received so many really nice messages, because that day was my birthday. I want to thank you for answering, giving me some suggestions for topics, celebrating me. It was a really good day. So here is the episode. You'll notice I'm going to be recording things in more of a conversational manner. I'm going to be speaking off the cuff, the way I would normally give advice to individuals when I meet with them, just to kind of simplify the process of doing all these recordings in advance. Hopefully, they will make sense to you. But if not, as usual, you can reach out to me and ask questions.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So how do you determine- let's get to the topic. How do you determine if a program is a right fit for you? I feel like I've already talked about this in a previous episode, likely episode six- finding a good grad program. But I want to kind of focus on fit today. The one thing I tell students to focus on, if you could focus on one thing, and one thing only when you're looking for a grad program, it's the people who are there. It's not so much what is it that you're studying, per se as much as who it is that you're working with. Those are the individuals that are going to make or break your experience there. In some cases, you might be going to graduate school in a field that's the same as your undergraduate major. So it's relatively easy to find top programs, because you're just looking at one discipline. But I often come across students who aren't necessarily in one discipline. Their research crosses disciplinary boundaries, so they may be looking at two, three, sometimes even four different types of programs. When that's the case, they come to me. They say, I don't know where to start. I don't know how to look for good program, because there's too many for me to focus on. I always say,focus on the individuals. When you're thinking about your research, when you're thinking about your interests, who are the people that you're running into? What names do you keep seeing? Then find out, okay, where are they now? And where did they get their degrees from? Odds are, wherever they've been trained, is also a good place for you to consider for graduate school.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then you don't just leave it at that. You don't want to just find, okay, great. I found ten programs, and they all have at least one person that I'm excited to work with. No, your job's not over after that. First of all, you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. You don't want to just rely on one individual to work with in your program. You want to make sure there are at least two or three people that you can work with, because you never know what could happen. Maybe that person is not taking students this year. Maybe that person got a job at another institution and is leaving. Maybe that person is about to retire. Sometimes, sadly, professors pass. So you don't want to rely on just one person and that person is no longer there after you've been admitted, and then you're left with no one who can work with you. Try to find two to three people.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then again, your job is not over then. I also strongly recommend- which is why you know episode number 35- was all about this, I strongly recommend reaching out and contacting prospective faculty, contacting maybe the top person you really want to work with for each program. Ideally, all of your programs, but I know that can be overwhelming. That can be a lot of people to reach out to. At least reach out to the top four or five programs on your list, and contact one person from from said program to get a sense of that rapport of what that professor is like when you meet them. Even if it's over zoom, is this someone that you feel like you'd get along with? Is it someone that you feel comfortable with? Is it someone who's making you feel supported? That's not always the case. Some professors are very awkward. Some of them are very blunt. Some of them are busy, and in a rush. Some of them are really hands off. You're gonna want to ask them about their mentoring style, how they support students,where their students are now. That's going to give you an impression of how they're going to be with you, when they have you as their student. So it's not just oh, great, I found an awesome scholar. They're an associate or full professor. They're doing well in their field. A letter of rec from them is gonna be great for when I apply to jobs. Yes, that is true, but also your relationship with that person matters. I do believe that kindness, support, empathy, those things matter, too. I wish I would have taken that more seriously, because I didn't when I was applying to graduate school. I ended up with an advisor who was very scary, who I did not feel comfortable talking to about anything other than academics, and even then it was still hard to talk to this individual. You don't want to be in a situation where there's hostility, or where you're with someone who is not fully committed to supporting you. So keep that in mind.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Other than faculty, what else goes into finding out if it's a good fit, or if it's a good program for you? You'll want to take a look at the curriculum. What kind of coursework do they offer? What kind of training are they offering? You want to find out, where are graduates going? What types of jobs are they landing? If you can, if you can make time, talk to the grad students. Talk to at least one grad student from that program. They will be 100% honest and transparent, for the most part, about the program, about the culture, about the area, about the professors. They'll give you information that no one else want to give you. Certainly not the faculty, because oftentimes faculty are invested in recruiting the best students. Because of that, they want to make sure that their program looks great, and they may not share the not so great aspects of their program. But the grad students will tell you the truth. They might say, yeah, we don't have enough funding. Or yeah, you might want to avoid so and so professor, or the culture here is great, or the culture here is not great. Run away. You never know what they're gonna tell you, but you want to keep their comments into consideration as you're trying to figure out if it's a good fit.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

For a lot of us location is important. So is this school in a big city? Are there certain communities available within this university setting? For instance, my students are often worried and concerned -and it's a genuine concern, because I have it too is like- are there POC here? Are there communities of color here that I can reach out to? Am I going to have a support system? Those are also things you'll want to consider? At the top end of things, who you work with matters. You know, your advisor is the person you're going to work with for the next four, five, six, seven, eight years, so you want to make sure that's a good relationship. That's why I said it'll make or break your time in grad school. Next, after that, what is the program like? How are they training you? What is the culture like there? After that, you want to think about location, and are you going to feel supported not just within the department and the program, but also within the extended community? Are you going to be able to find support systems there? Those are some of the main things. Obviously, there's more to consider. You can always consider other things outside of that.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But if I could just tell you to emphasize and focus on a few things, it's definitely the faculty. It's definitely the culture, the access to community, the location. And yes, of course, some folks are going to scoff at me and say you haven't mentioned rank. Rank matters. Yes, it does matter. But you can't just apply to grad school based on rankings. If you apply just based on rankings, and you're not a good fit for that program, you're not going to get in anyway. So instead of thinking solely about rankings, focus on the fit. Some of the top ranking schools are going to be a good fit for you, and some of the not so great ranking schools are also going to be a good fit for you. You might not have an Ivy League degree, but if you have a very supportive committee, if you have very supportive faculty, if you have a strong sense of community, those are the people that are going to advocate for you. Those are the people that are going to help you when you're on the job market, whether that's an academic job market, or you're applying to jobs outside of academia. You'll have people to support you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think that's all I'm gonna say for today. It is a bit of a shorter episode, because a lot of it is, I feel like I'm continuing to have that conversation about how to find a good grad program. Again, if you want to hear more, go to episode six. But yes, focus on the faculty, the research, who's there, access to resources. If all of that is starting to look really good, and you've met with individuals, and that's also starting to align, then that should further validate your wanting to apply there. I already have some of my students who have been doing their homework and reaching out to grant programs, They're even more excited to apply to grad school now, because they are receiving mostly positive reactions from people who are getting back to them relatively quickly over email, wanting to meet with them, expressing enthusiasm over their applications. This is not always the case. Some years professors go MIA. Sometimes they don't respond to emails right away, and perhaps things are changing because of folks working from home. I don't know, but it seems like a lot of professors are being more responsive this year than years prior. So, again, I strongly encourage you- find the people, reach out to them, get the information you need to confirm your grad school list and then go ahead and apply. Don't overthink this too much. Once you have a list that you're confident in, let's kind of move forward and don't let yourself hold yourself back from applying this fall, if that's really what you want to do. All right. I will talk to you all next time. Thanks for listening.