391: How to Choose the Right Graduate Program Beyond Rankings and Prestige

391: How to Choose the Right Graduate Program Beyond Rankings and Prestige

===

[00:00:00]

Dra Yvette Martinez-Vu: A university name and program name might tell you something about its reputation, about its prestige, about its rankings, but it can't by itself tell you whether you will have a good advisor, whether you'll have decent funding, whether you'll have accessible learning conditions, or even whether you'll have a program culture that's gonna support you and your goals.

And yet, when most people I work with start working on a grad school list, their initial tendency is to do a search of their top 10 and 20 programs in their field. They're searching for rankings. They're searching for prestige. And without any support or guidance, that's where they start, and that's also where they end.

While that search strategy is okay as a starting point, I do not recommend that you end there because this is a program that you're applying to where [00:01:00] you might spend the next two, three, four, five, eight, nine, 10 years of your life there. And so it matters to do your own research to figure out what actually matters for you to think about the outcome of what you want to get out of this experience.

For today, I'm gonna be talking about a topic that I've covered for over 16 years now, which is about how do you actually find the right graduate program for you, and how do you do this if you're looking beyond rankings, beyond prestige, and really thinking about yourself and your needs?

So let's get into it.

Welcome to the award-winning Grad School Femtoring Podcast, the place where first-generation BIPOC students and professionals can listen in on inclusive grad school stories [00:02:00] and gain practical tools for sustainable success. This is Doctora Yvette Martinez-Vu, a certified coach, consultant, author, and speaker.

I will be serving as your femtor, providing you with insider knowledge to help you thrive in grad school and beyond.

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring Podcast. This is your host, Doctora Yvette. Today, we are talking about choosing the right graduate program. And I'm gonna talk about a couple of things that go beyond the top program list that you might have accessible to you right now.

I'm gonna talk about you and what might be some of your non-negotiables. I'm gonna talk about the importance of finding the right faculty in these programs. I'm gonna talk about things like looking at funding, looking [00:03:00] at the resources and conditions that are offered in each program. And of course, I'm gonna talk about the importance of actually talking to real human beings about this program, talking to students, talking to faculty, talking to alumni because all of that matters and helps you get closer to finding the right programs and places for you.

And before I dive into some of these things, I do wanna remind you that this episode is for educational purposes only. It's not meant to be professional or financial advice in any way, shape, or form. I want to encourage you to always take a closer look at policies, at funding information, healthcare, visa rules, anything else that is important to you and your experience.

Please take a look at that closely. And if you need to hire professional support to do that, go ahead and do that. But it is something [00:04:00] to take seriously because this is a huge time and likely also financial investment for you, so it's not something to take lightly. The other reason why it's so important to really take your time with finding the right programs is because the graduate admissions landscape continues to change, and in some ways, it's getting harder or more challenging.

And in every year that I've been doing this work around graduate admission support, I always start with a grad school list, and we don't continue moving on with other materials until that's finalized because it's so important. But now we're seeing a lot of changes that are coming up. Some programs are freezing their admissions, or they are admitting students, but they have no funding to offer them.

Other programs are shrinking their cohort sizes precisely because of funding shortages. [00:05:00] Because of that, we're also seeing a good number of international students are no longer applying to universities in the US for graduate study, and that's also impacting departments and where they get their funding from.

So all of this to say that there's changes that are happening right now, and it's important for you to do your part to find out, okay, what do I know about this program? What is going on in their department? Are they actually accepting students this year? Who can I talk to to get the lay of the land so that I know that I'm not wasting my time looking into this program and working on my application materials?

So let's get into where do you start? You start with you. You start with what it is that you actually need from this program. Why are you applying to this program in the first place? Do you absolutely need this credential to pursue the [00:06:00] profession that you're going into? Or maybe are you pursuing this program because of the type of training that you're gonna get?

You want to have advanced research skills, and that's gonna help you with your next career or your current career trajectory. Maybe you're doing a career transition, and this program is gonna provide you with skills that are gonna be essential for that transition. Maybe you are applying to this program because you want access to a very lucrative professional network, and that's important to you.

Or maybe you're going back to school to study a topic that really matters to you, and you know, no matter what the outcome is, it's important for you to complete this project. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to have a perfect five or 10-year plan right now. But I do want you to have enough of a sense of why you're applying to this program so that you have the information you need to support your [00:07:00] decision, right?

And so you need to know the conditions that are necessary for you to successfully finish this program. And you can think about this through your non-negotiables, and then you can also think about it through things like your other strong preferences and other things that would be nice to have. Your non-negotiables are those things that must be present for a program to be on your list.

You're not gonna apply to this program unless this non-negotiable or these set of non-negotiables are there. And this varies widely from person to person. But for some, it might be funding. You wanna make sure that your program provides you with full funding because you're applying to PhD programs and that matters for you.

Or maybe it means that you want to stay within a specific region. So you might wanna commute or be driving distance [00:08:00] or be within a certain number of miles away from proximity to home and family. That might be another non-negotiable. Maybe for you, you're a full-time working professional, and so you want a program that's either flexible or gives you a part-time option.

That could be another non-negotiable. Or maybe you're someone who has different access needs, and so you wanna learn more about healthcare options, accommodation options, and making sure that you have accessible transport, accessible housing. That's gonna be something that you'll look at as a non-negotiable as well.

All of these things can be a non-negotiable. You can also have a non-negotiable that is academic. In fact, I strongly urge you to include the non-negotiable of finding the right faculty. I say this to everyone, no matter where they're applying to. You need to make sure that you find the right [00:09:00] people in your program, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later. So those are your non-negotiables.

These are the essentials, the must-haves for you. And this wasn't an exhaustive list, so keep in mind you might have other non-negotiables that I didn't mention right now, but I shared a few that come up a lot. The funding question comes up a lot. The location question comes up a lot. And of course, the people and who is there comes up a lot.

Then there's also strong preferences that you might have. Maybe you prefer being in a program that has a cohort. Not every graduate program has a cohort model, but you wanna make sure that you are in one that has that type of model. Maybe for you, a strong preference is warmer weather. I work with a lot of people from the West Coast, specifically from California, and I know y'all have been spoiled with the weather that you've had [00:10:00] for most of your life, and the thought of going somewhere where it's gonna be snowy or potentially arctic weather can feel intimidating.

So warm weather might be a strong preference. I've also heard of some people who want to avoid really, really hot weather, so they've intentionally ignored places that are the desert and have very, very hot weather. I also have seen this year that some individuals prefer to apply to places that don't require the GRE, the Graduate Record Exam, and that is a personal preference.

Some folks don't want to bother with studying and paying for a test that doesn't matter to them, and so they're not going to apply to programs that require it. Or maybe some folks, they're thinking, "I wanna go somewhere where I can have access to community that looks like me, that sounds like me."

I see this all the time with folks who [00:11:00] either wanna apply to programs that are primarily HBCUs or that are primarily HSIs or MSIs, so they wanna make sure that there's either a strong Black or a strong Brown community where they go. That's completely understandable as a preference. And so I'm just giving you a couple of ideas.

And then there's the bonuses or the nice to haves, and these are things that aren't gonna make or break your decision, but they're still things that might help. So a bonus might mean that there's more than two professors there doing work that you really wanna do. A bonus might mean they might have a special access to an archive that you can imagine conducting research in.

A bonus might mean maybe you don't have a huge weather preference, but this university is right by the beach, or you name it. These are great things, but they're not going to be [00:12:00] the deal breakers for you. So think about that and track that on a spreadsheet. I have an old but good episode on the grad school list where I talk about all the things that you want to list out in your grad school list.

And I also have a grad school list that I provide to all of my clients and all the programs that work with me because I'll provide free resources when I facilitate workshops, when I facilitate retreats. I also sell digital programs, courses, downloads. One of the things that I provide is this grad school application tracker, and it has several columns for the key things to consider when you're tracking your programs.

And I'm not gonna name all of them, but I do want to just mention a couple of key things. For sure, you need to keep track of what's the name of the school and the program name, what type of program [00:13:00] is it, master's, PhD, et cetera. And then you definitely need to know the deadline. You definitely need to know what professors you can work with and identify their email so you can reach out to them.

You wanna know the location, especially if you are applying widely or if you're sticking to a specific region. And then you wanna track what are they actually asking for, what application materials do they need. Other things that you could track are the cost of the application so you have a sense of how much it's gonna cost you total in terms of your budget to apply to grad school.

Some folks I work with are eligible for fee waivers, so they'll write that down. But in general, what I wanted to say is that you want to track your non-negotiables in this spreadsheet. It's really important for you to know what do I absolutely need to have in this program for me to get the outcome [00:14:00] that I want.

And the outcome is up to you, right? What I shared earlier. Is it primarily the credential? Is it the research skills? Is it having access to a greater network and so forth?

Applying to graduate school can feel overwhelming, especially when you're navigating the process without insider guidance. Through my grad school admissions consulting services, I offer first-generation and/or BIPOC students who want strategic and culturally relevant guidance throughout the application process.

Together, we can build a thoughtful grad school list, help you refine your CV or resume, develop a compelling personal statement, help you prepare for interviews, review funding offers, and accept an offer that excites you. I meet you wherever you are in the process and provide feedback and guidance every step of the way.[00:15:00]

Consulting packages also include access to my graduate admissions resource library with dozens of resources as well as email and voice memo support between sessions. Past clients have submitted applications they felt comfortable with that reflect who they are and what they stand for. They have also been admitted to competitive programs, secured over six figures of funding, and say that this was the best investment they've made in the process.

If you're preparing to apply, visit gradschoolfemtoring.com/consulting to learn more and schedule a free consultation.

And now I wanna talk about faculty and finding the right people, finding the right mentors because This is probably the most important part of making sure that you find the right programs for you.

I say this all the time. I sound like a broken record. You need to make sure that [00:16:00] there's people actually doing the work that you want to do. You wanna find folks whose research aligns with what you wanna do. Maybe they're conducting similar methods, maybe they're working with similar communities, maybe they're asking similar questions, and their advising and mentoring style works for you.

If you find what you think is your dream school, and then you go to the faculty page and there's no one doing what you wanna do, I hate to break this to you, but you're gonna have a really hard time making the justification that this is the right program and right fit for you if you can't make the argument that there's people there doing what you wanna do.

And vice versa, that you are interested in doing work that other people are doing there. Pay attention to that. And also pay attention to things that go beyond what's listed in their website and their bio. Yes, you can look at [00:17:00] publications. Yes, you can look at current projects. Yes, you can look at lab sites, research group sites.

All of that is helpful, but you also want to talk to people who have worked with them. You also want to find out what it is to talk to them. Do you have a good rapport with them? And so accessing information online is a great place to start, but it does not give you enough or adequate evidence that they're gonna be the right advisor for you.

This is where I'm going to encourage you, and in some cases I will require individuals to email faculty and to email graduate students, and even to reach out to alumni so that you can ask them questions and find out what it's like to work with them, what it's like to go to that graduate program, and what are the recent graduate [00:18:00] outcomes.

The other thing I wanna share is as you're, like, combing through faculty sites, this work is incredibly tedious. Some websites are really outdated. A lot of them are clunky. I always appreciate when a website has a search bar, and you can search for key terms based on your research interests.

Unfortunately, many of them are not like this, and so it does require a lot of clicking of individual faculty pages. It can be frustrating, but you want to do this work to the point where you can find two or more professors at each program. You don't want to just find one. One is not enough. That person might not accept students this year.

That person might be leaving the program. That person might be retiring. So two or more is enough. The other thing too is why you wanna have more than two is not just because one person might leave, but you're also thinking about your committee. If you're [00:19:00] in a master's program, you're gonna have a thesis committee or some sort of committee or mentors who are helping you as you're working on some sort of research project or final master's project.

Same with a dissertation. For the PhD, you're gonna have a committee. They're gonna be there to sign off on your dissertation. Hopefully, they'll do more than that. Hopefully, they'll actually read your work and give you feedback. All of this is gonna impact your experience. Now, how do you find information on how to contact them?

With faculty, it's pretty straightforward. You can usually find their email listed on some sort of faculty page online. Graduate students, it can be trickier. And I'll tell you this, one of the ways that I've supported people with getting access to graduate students is by emailing the graduate advisor from that department and asking if they can forward your email to their graduate student listserv so [00:20:00] that they can put you in touch with a graduate student.

That usually works well. Another way to find them is through social media, especially LinkedIn. This is also how you find alumni. You search for the program name on the search bar and look for the people that show up and then see, okay, who has this listed in their education section. They might be a current student or they might be a former student, meaning they've completed the program and you can hear more from them about what their experience was like there.

Now, beyond the people, beyond the potential advisors, the potential mentors that you might have there, you also want to take a look at the funding and the program conditions. When programs say full funding, you wanna find out what that actually means. How many years are they offering funding? How much is that stipend?

And are they actually paying for summer funding? What [00:21:00] does health insurance look like? Do they provide any coverage for dependents? Is there a stipend for anything beyond the work that you're doing. So maybe you're getting a stipend for a computer or a stipend for travel to conferences, and so forth.

So what kind of funding is available? Sometimes some programs will provide a reimbursement for your travel expenses to move there. So this is all things that you can look into, and you might not find this information easily available online, but this is where you ask these questions when you're talking to people.

You ask them, "What does the funding look like? Is it a fellowship funding where you don't necessarily have to work as a teaching assistant or research assistant, or is it primarily teaching assistantships?" With program conditions, you wanna find out how do they support individuals like you.

So in addition to [00:22:00] thinking about, okay, healthcare, healthcare is really important. What does healthcare look like here? Because not every program offers the same coverage. You can also look at disability services, accessibility services offices to find out, you know, how do they support students who have any conditions or diagnoses that you might have.

You can also ask about what's the whole cost of the program. If it's a master's program, then how do most students fund their program, especially in light of the fact that master's programs don't tend to provide full funding. Do they provide scholarships?

I have a separate episode that I want you to take a look at, which is an episode where I talked about how to calculate the ROI of grad school, because I want you to think about that when you are considering your grad school list. ~You wanna find out whether or not the cost of it are actually gonna outweigh...~

~No, I'm sorry. ~You wanna think about whether or not the benefits of it are going to outweigh the costs [00:23:00] of the program. Okay, so we talked about the faculty, the mentors, the people, talking to professors, talking to graduate students, talking to alumni, and then we talked about thinking about the funding, thinking about the conditions.

What does this program offer? What is it like to live here? What is housing like? Is it primarily a commuter school, or is it a school where, most people live close by? These are all going to impact your experience there. And then in addition to that, I want you to start gathering all this information, putting it on a spreadsheet.

Put your programs in different rows, and add the criteria that matters to you. And just to wrap things up, 'cause I think I covered the main part of it. So the main part is figure out what it is that you need and make sure [00:24:00] that that program is gonna get you to that outcome. So if it's primarily a credential, if it's gonna provide you with the right credential, make sure that that's there.

If it's research experience, make sure you're getting that. If it's access to a specific type of network, make sure you're getting that. And then looking at the people there. The people are gonna make or break your experience, so take a good look at that.

Then, of course, consider your other non-negotiables, whatever those are for you. And then it's always good to look at the numbers and the funding. Even if that's not one of your non-negotiables, it's still good to know, because that also impacts your experience there. Those are the main key factors I encourage you to consider. Now, in terms of what do you do with this? I want you to write down your top three non-negotiables. What are they? Is it [00:25:00] a specific location? Is it access to a specific type of community?

Is it funding? Is it something else? Write that down. And then after you do that, you wanna find one program, and then go search at the faculty page and find at least two professors that you could imagine working with because of the work that they do, because of the type of mentorship you desire to have.

And then after that, reach out to someone. Reach out to a student, reach out to a professor, reach out to an alumni, and request a short coffee chat, or you can call it an informational interview, whatever makes you feel better to ask them more about them. And if you're reaching out to a current graduate student, ask them if you can meet with them for thirty minutes to learn more about their experience in the programs thus far.

If [00:26:00] it's a professor there, you can ask for a thirty-minute conversation to learn more about them, their work, and their program If it's an alumni, same thing. Ask for 15 to 30 minutes of their time to learn more about their experience in this graduate program and how it has supported them in their current career trajectory.

All of this is gonna give you a lot of insights. It does take time. That's what is frustrating about this process. It can be tedious. It does involve talking to people, and not all of us wanna talk to people all day. But the more you do this, the more information you get, the more connected you are, and all of that is going to add up.

Folks, for the most part, want to help you out if they can, and so just keep at it. Keep reaching out to people. Keep getting more information until you get to the number of programs [00:27:00] that feels right for you. For some people, that might be six programs. For other people, it might be eight, 10, 12, maybe even 16 programs on their list.

So choose a number of programs that you would be comfortable applying to, and that if you got into these programs, you would seriously consider going there. Don't just add programs because they're considered safety schools. Don't just add programs because they're considered prestigious schools. Add programs where you actually have evidence that this is the program that's gonna support you to reaching your short and long-term goals.

Now, if you have any other questions about this process, don't hesitate to reach out. I do this all the time. I'm happy to record a follow-up episode with your questions. And if you found this helpful, send it to a friend who might be applying to grad school this year, and, you know, share it with anyone else who might benefit from it.

And while you're at it, [00:28:00] get yourself a copy of my book, Is Grad School For Me? It's written precisely for individuals like you who are interested in applying to grad school, and it covers every step of the process. That's it for today. Thanks again for listening, and I'll talk to you all next time.

Thanks so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, here are three ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. The second way is to get your copy of my free resource kit linked in my show notes. This kit includes tools, worksheets, and curated podcast playlists to guide you through applying to and navigating grad school.

The third way to support my show is by joining my email newsletter, where I share key takeaways and additional resources. Thanks again for listening, and until next time