A Student's Guide to Grad School
By: Kara Harper
Some of you, may be approaching your final years in school and wondering what lies ahead. While some of you will focus on starting new careers or advancing in your current one, others like myself, may be thinking of continuing your education in a graduate program. Although an exciting and eye-opening experience, it can begin to feel a lot like being back in high school. Between looking for the right program, prepping for the GRE, and weeding through applications it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and under prepared. I’m here to help with a few quick tricks to get you moving on the grad school path.
One of the first steps you should take before narrowing down your program choices is to know your degree. Learn and understand the differences between your degree options such as earning an M.A., M.F.A. or Ph.D. in your chosen field. Master’s Degree programs often take between 1-2 years to complete and are a common transition from undergraduate to graduate before pursuing a Ph.D., which can take anywhere from 4-6 years to complete. Make sure to spend some time researching different degree options and choose the one that suits your goals and expectations.
The second step is to narrow down your school choices, using a simple method I refer to as S.H.R. which stands for Safety, Hopeful, and Reach. For every school you consider ask yourself which category it falls into. Reach schools are the cream of the crop and should be your absolute top choices, even if they seem a little out of reach for your academic achievements. Next are your list of hopeful schools, these should be schools that you think will meet all your wants and needs for a program where you think you’ll grow as a student but may be a little below the prestige of your reach schools. Lastly are your safety schools, these are school that have a program that meets the most general needs you have but are the bottom of you list for choices and act as backups if all else fails. When making your cuts to potential schools I recommend finding at least two schools for each category and going from there.
It’s easy to say that a lot of research, planning and keeping our fingers crossed goes into finding the right school. It may even take months of gathering all the information you can get your hands on before making your final decisions. And to that I say take your time and be sure it’s right for you. These are just a couple of the tips to keep in mind when beginning your search for a graduate school program. Although it’s no walk in the park it almost serves as a testament to your perseverance in pushing forward, toward your future education.