49: You Got Into Grad School, Now What?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Happy Friday, everyone. I am recording an episode today in a way I don't normally do it. I am recording it on the same day that I'm publishing it, and I'm actually multitasking. I am getting ready for my day right now. I am doing my hair and my makeup. And that's because I have been attending a conference this week, it's been especially busy for me, I haven't had time to really prep any notes or do my usual recording. And I didn't want to hold off another week before publishing. So I figured I'll just do a quick recording while I'm getting ready. It only takes me I don't know, 20, 30 minutes to get ready. So that's about the time it takes for me to record an episode. And I also that's the only bit of time I have left because it's the morning for me right now, you'll probably see this will be published in the afternoon. So it's the morning for me and the conferences will start shortly. So get ready. Say a few thoughts about getting into grad school. And then you know, if I'm not able to say everything I need to say or I feel like I wasn't prepped enough, because sometimes I like to have notes, then I'll just follow up and do a part two, next week.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Today, I am talking to you about what do you do if and when you get into grad school? What's the next step? Let's say you applied to PhD programs in the fall. Maybe you were invited for some interviews, interviews, Zoom days, maybe not. Maybe you just found out that you got in without any interviews. What do you do next?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Well, before anything, you want to make sure that you have some sort of funding offer. Even if you apply to Master's programs, you want to ask what kind of financial aid is available to students. You don't have to ask right away because sometimes funding offers don't come in right away. Like for instance, if you apply to a PhD program, maybe the department nominated you for a central fellowship through your university. And they're waiting to hear back on that. So if that's the case, then they won't be able to give you an offer letter with your award with your funding package until a few weeks later. It's okay to wait. Because it is still January. But you want to know, I don't know within a month. So two to four weeks after you get your acceptance letter, you want to know and it's okay to ask after you've waited. Let's say you've waited two weeks, it's okay to ask and inquire to see if there's any financial aid available, if you should expect a funding package.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And let's say you've been admitted to multiple programs, and you do have offer letters. What do you do then? I actually just met with a student where I advised him to create a spreadsheet. This student did get into multiple programs. And each of them had very distinct funding packages, all of them in some way shape or form or offering full funding. But full funding means something very different across institutions and locations. You know, some of them may be offering 20k a year as a stipend. Some of them are offering 32k a year. Some of them are including summer funding as a summer award or scholarship. Some of them aren't. Some of them are including, like a one time that say like $750 one time to help with moving expenses. Some are saying okay, we're going to provide you with this extra $1,000 or $3,000 stipend for a year or for two years or for your first three years. Some of them say they're giving you an annual stipend of X amount 20k, 30k. But they don't tell you for how many years they just say it's an annual stipend. So you need to get it in writing and find out how many years are they actually supporting you for. Some of them say you're required to TA but they don't say what years you TA so you want to ask when I'm TAing when am I expected to do that.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The other thing to add to that spreadsheet that's really important is if you apply to programs nationwide. Then you want to keep in mind the differences in cost of living. Because let's say you get into, and this is just an example, I'm making it up, don't go thinking now Ohio State gives you this much. But let's say, you got into Ohio State, and they're offering you 18k. And then you got into New York University, and they're offering you 32k. That seems like, wow, you're gonna have a lot more with NYU. But then you look at cost of living. And Ohio State is a lot cheaper to live there, rent and just the general cost of items, there's just a lot cheaper, you're at, you may actually have more money to work with, with that $18,000 stipend than the 32k stipend, because maybe the 32k, at NYU is just going to all go to rent. So just keep these things in mind, it's good to think about cost of living to look up, you know, what is a room or an apartment look like at these different locations and institutions? So they offer graduate housing is graduate housing subsidized? If so what are the rates for that. And that will be one factor, a big factor, but it is one factor to help you decide if you want to go there.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Another very important factor is talking to grad students, you need to find a way if you weren't able to talk to them and an interview day, if there is no open house of some sort, find a way to get a hold of grad students at the different institutions that you've been admitted to. Sometimes, you can also reach out to professors that, you know, they may know folks who recently graduated from there, they may know alumni, who would be more than willing to meet with you to talk to you about that program. That actually, is something that we sometimes do, you know, in our program, if one of us know someone else from that program, or recently completed their PhD there, we want to put them in touch, you know, that way, especially if they're like, folks have similar backgrounds.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So like, we have one student who got into an institution on the East Coast, and we put her in touch with someone else who was also from California was also a Chicana had also completed their PhD from the same program. So that way, they can be honest and real with her about like, what is it like being a Latina/Chicana In this state at this institution? What is the community like there? What kind of support systems are available? Or was it like, moving away from home for the first time, these are very important conversations to have, because this is, this is your life for the next four or 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, sometimes even 10 years? So you don't want to take this lightly. You want to talk to alumni and grad students to see what was it like there? Is it a hospitable place? What's the culture like? Are you gonna be supported? Are you gonna? Yeah, can you picture yourself living there? And what are some of the outcomes? Like what are the placement rates? Where are alumni going? What are they doing with their degrees?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

These are things to keep in mind, you want to find out about funding, you want to talk to grad students, you want to talk to alumni. And then obviously, there are also personal factors that are going to be very different, depending on your identity. You know, for instance, if you're a person of color, if you're a Black student, you might want to know, like, okay, is this place safe for me? Or is it a very white supremacist space? I mean, we know that academia as a whole is very white supremacist is just not a space that's friendly to POC, but some places are trying and do have diversity initiatives or include diversity within their curriculum in some way, shape, or form or have more POC professors.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

These are things you might want to keep in mind. And you could even ask that you can ask that of the professor's if you have an opportunity to meet with them to interview with them. You're interviewing them too. Especially once you get in you really are interviewing them. You really do have leverage and power because they want you and they're competing with other people who also want you so you want to ask them? How do you address diversity within your curriculum within your program structure? You know, what is your population look like? What are the demographics of the program? It's completely okay to ask that. Other aspects of your identity would be like other than, like, can you picture yourself living here? Is there a community there?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

What's it like at that institution? What is What do each cohorts look like? Age sometimes is a thing. Sometimes some programs have folks who are much older, who have basically had careers before they have pursued grad school, maybe you're one of the only younger people there. What's that like? Are you going to feel comfortable in your department? Are you going to feel comfortable with your cohort. So if there's an opportunity for you to meet with others, who have also been recently admitted, it doesn't hurt to talk to them? In fact, I see this happen a lot, where folks will go to interviews, and then they'll keep seeing the same people that are getting admitted to the same programs. And so it's good to talk to them to see, okay, wow, this is what my cohort might look like, this is what other prospective applicants are like. What do they think of the program? Are they going to go? What do I think of them? Are they someone that I feel like I would get along with and I could potentially, you know, receive support from especially because in graduate school, the first few years when you're doing coursework, it's all, you know, a lot of collaborating, interacting with your cohort, and you rely on each other to get through at the very least the first few years of grad school and sometimes qualifying qualifying exams, as well. You want to think about your cohort as well.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

What else? Funding is a big one, you know, learning more about your potential advisor from other grad students learning more about the culture of the department, about the culture hospitability of the location, also, just in general, if you're someone I know, I have a lot of folks who listen to my podcast who are from LA, and get the stats, and at least 1/4 of you who listened to me are from LA. I don't know why. I would think it'd be Santa Barbara. But no, it's LA. So if you're Cali person, can you actually picture yourself living there? Can you picture yourself in the snow, like raking snow? Putting chains on your tires and salt on your driveway and whatever else people do when they live in arctic cold weather? So think about that, too? Because, you know, is it gonna affect your mental health? If you have a lot of days in the year where there's not as much sun as in California? It's okay to be honest and forthcoming about these things.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Do you want to be closer to home? Are you do you have that responsibility of needing to be close to home because of having to support family members, parents, younger siblings. That's an honest thing to consider. You know, everybody's different. Some folks are more willing to move away than others. It just depends on what your family structure is like, and what you think you can handle at this time. So yeah, think about the community. Think about the location, think about whether you can live there.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Think about if you're going to have support from the professor's from your cohort, if you're going to be able to survive there financially as well. Yeah, I would say those are definitely some things. Oh, and one other thing I wanted to say is don't feel the need to say yes, right away. I know you are going to get pressured to say yes. But you have for most if not all programs, you have until April 15th. It's that tax deadline and grad school deadline. You have until April 15 to say yes, so don't feel rushed. Even if they keep reaching out to you to hope that you make a decision. You are entitled to wait until April 15. You are entitled to negotiate for more funding. I believe I've recorded an episode of negotiating last year so go back to my older episodes to find that one and if not, I'm going to double check to I may do another one just kind of to talk about anything else that maybe I missed in my first episode on funding and how about how to negotiate for better funding packages.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Yeah, don't don't rush but also if you are I guess lucky enough to have been admitted to multiple programs. And you know, for a fact that you're definitely not going to go to one of the, let's say, three, four or five programs you've been admitted to, it's okay to say no to them, or to get placed off of a waitlist, if you know you're not going to go there. And if you know that you don't really need this program as a form of leverage to get a better funding package elsewhere. So if you know for sure, I'm not going to go to Boston University, I'm not going to go to Ohio, say I'm not going to go to UC Irvine, whatever institution it is, doesn't even really matter. I'm just mentioning random universities that pop up in my head. But if you know, you're not going to go there, just go ahead and say no, that way, you can open up a spot to someone else who is on a waitlist, who is hoping to go there, who does consider this school their top choice. So keep that in mind. Say no, for the places you know, for sure, you're not going to go to where it doesn't make a difference to have their offer in any way. You can't use it for negotiating, etc.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And then for all the others get as much information as possible to help you make a decision if you have to make a spreadsheet. Not just about the funding, but also about the pros and cons of each institution and go ahead and do that. Hopefully, that will help you. If that doesn't quite help, then I also recommend talking to a trusted mentor or advisor and just talking it out with them. Because I've I do that I do that with my scholars each year, not everyone just whoever feels comfortable reaching out to me. And we'll you know, talk for like an hour, and they're just going on and on and on about the different schools and what they've learned. Sometimes I take notes, sometimes I don't, because it's really obvious to me where they want to go and they just need to say it out loud. Like, they'll just keep going on and on and on.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I remember one year and if he listens to this podcast is gonna know talking about him, there was a student who had been dreaming of going to Stanford forever. I mean, that was his top choice. And then he ended up getting into Chicago and Stanford and other programs. But those were the top choices. And he just kept talking about you know, Stanford has this, Stanford that has that, that U Chicago has this and had never considered that. And U Chicago this and U Chicago that. And just the excitement with which he talked about in Chicago. I just knew, I knew that that's where he was going to go that that was the place for him that he was surprised, pleasantly surprised. But this was all based on having gotten to know the students there, the professor's there, the curriculum, the space, the location, all these things. You know, the more he found out about it, the more he realized that was actually a better fit for him than the Stanford program. So keep that in mind.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The more info you get, the more informed your decision will be. And that way you make a choice that is right for you. I think that's all I'm gonna say for now. I know this is the shorter episode. Probably not as well thought out. But please bear with me. And yeah, if anything else comes up, I will follow up next week and add my extra thoughts then. Hope y'all have a good weekend. All right, bye bye.