Grad School Toolkit
Career Advancement supports students at every stage of the process of applying to graduate school. Whether you're wondering whether graduate school is right for you or ready to build your application, Career Advancement is here to help!
This toolkit provides information on how you can prepare for grad school and build a strong application. In addition to the information in this guide, we strongly encourage you to consult with faculty in your area of interest.
Preparing for Grad School
Take challenging coursework that will help you decide if graduate study is what you wish to pursue.
Go beyond your department’s requirements to build up your knowledge, skills, and abilities in your chosen field.
Take critical theory, methods, or skill-building courses to prepare you for advanced scholarly work.
Faculty relationships are critical if you want to pursue graduate school. Nearly all graduate programs will require at least one letter of recommendation from a faculty member.
Invest early in building strong relationships: get to know faculty by attending office hours, taking seminar courses, and/or working as a research/lab assistant.
Get involved with research both inside and outside the classroom.
Research will help you build substantive experience in your area of interest, connect with faculty, and prepare you for graduate work.
Research is especially critical if you intend to pursue Ph.D programs.
The College Center for Research & Fellowships has many helpful resources for finding and funding research opportunities.
We also encourage you to take courses where you'll have opportunities to write long-form research and seminar papers.
Look for or create a capstone experience for your College education.
This might take the form of a thesis paper or project, or an independent research course exploring a particular topic.
We also encourage you to pursue departmental honors for your major if available.
Foreign language skills can be a great asset for many graduate programs, especially for PhD programs in fields where you need to be able to read research literature in languages other than English.
Even though your planned graduate work may not involve a foreign language, many programs in the humanities and social sciences require all students to pass a language exam or show competency in a language other than English.
Build Your Application
Most schools will have candidates complete an online questionnaire asking them to input basic information about themselves and their preparation for graduate work.
A professional resume may be appropriate for many master’s degree programs as well as MD and JD programs. For this purpose, your resume can be up to two pages, longer than a one-page work resume.
A Curriculum Vitae (CV) is the academic version of your resume. It speaks to a largely academic audience and is generally used when applying for academic positions, research, grants, and admission to some graduate programs. It allows you to provide an extensive list of these accomplishments and, therefore, often spans several pages. The focus of a CV is on you: your training, your interests, and your work. Your professors may ask for you to send them a copy of your CV, for example, if you ask them for a letter of recommendation.
See Career Advancement’s CV guide for tips on how to write a CV, and reach out to faculty and graduate students in your field of interest to get more information on CVs in your specific discipline.
A statement of purpose is your opportunity to tell the admissions committee about your career goals, why you want to enroll in that specific program, and the experiences that have prepared you to succeed in graduate school.
Keep your statement brief (probably no more than three single-spaced pages) and adhere to the guidelines provided by the school.
Describe how your interests fit with the particular school to which you are applying or match particular strengths of the program.
Include relevant experience: courses in your discipline and related to your discipline, papers you have written (hypotheses, data, theory, and method used), a synopsis of your BA paper, as well as any relevant research assistantships, jobs, and/or internships.
Please watch our personal statements video and make an appointment with a career adviser for personalized support with preparing your statement.
Your transcript will give admissions committees valuable information on your academic performance and readiness for the rigor of graduate study. Review the application requirements carefully to determine whether you should send official or unofficial transcripts. Learn more about how you can request both types of transcripts.
Choose faculty members who have worked with you closely and know your academic work well to write your letters of recommendation.
These letters should support the application by offering detailed commentary about the applicant’s academic achievements and potential for research.
Make an appointment with a potential recommender to discuss a possible letter of recommendation.
At a minimum, provide one month’s notice before the deadline, and remember that many faculty may be less available during the summer.
If faculty agree to write for you, you may have to remind them as your deadline draws near.
Give potential writers a polite way to decline if they are unable to write the kind of letter you need.
Some programs require a writing sample. Submit a clean copy of any writing sample. You may want to include a brief abstract of your sample to provide context.
Talk to your faculty and mentors about what to submit as a writing sample. Be sure to keep within the stated page length.
A completed BA Thesis (or some other thoroughly edited piece of professional writing) is often a great writing sample to send.
If you use some other sample (a term-paper, for instance) the piece should be thoroughly refined/proofread before you submit it as a writing sample.
Some graduate programs require the GRE (Graduate Record Examination).
If required, most students take the general exam, which is divided into three sections to evaluate verbal skills, quantitative skills, and analytical writing aptitude.
The general exam is a computer-based (CBT), adaptive-learning test and is offered throughout the year pending seat availability.
Study guides and subject test date information is available at the GRE website.
The GRE is offered in testing centers and virtually.
If you plan to apply for graduate school in fall of your fourth year, it can be advantageous to study for the GRE over the summer and take it in late summer or early fall.