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Grad apps, Step 7: Complete and submit your applications.

By heather posted February 25, 2009

Making it official: the applications.

You’ve researched. You’ve planned. You’ve taken your tests. Sent your transcripts. Gathered your letters of recommendation. Written your application essays and personal statements. Now it’s time to make it official.

Step 7: Complete and submit your applications.

Good news: you’re just moments away from becoming an official graduate school applicant. The hard parts are finished, and by now, you should have a stellar application packet almost ready to go… it just needs an official application form to introduce you to the admissions committees who will soon be reviewing your file.

And more good news: there’s not much you can do to screw this part up, but there are a few pitfalls you must absolutely avoid at all costs.

Review your programs’ application website and proofread everything else.

Before you complete the last portion of your application for admission, take a few moments to re-read the full application instructions on the website of each program at which you intend to apply. Double-check all application instructions to ensure that you’ve followed all instructions and completed all the necessary elements. Review the word count or page limits for your essays. Check off each required form, letter, or statement required. Once you’re satisfied that you’ve done everything correctly, you’re ready to fill out the surprisingly brief application form.

Do a “dry run.”

After the months you’ve probably spent preparing everything else, the actual application form will look pleasantly quick and easy. But before you begin filling anything in, print a copy to fill in manually if you plan to submit online, or print or photocopy a spare if you’ll be sending in a paper application. Start on your practice copy. Make sure you read each prompt carefully and provide the correct information. Taking the time to physically write out your application (rather than simply completing it online) will give you an added opportunity to get everything right.

Once you’ve finished filling out the paper form (or the spare copy), read everything again. Trust me: this is not the place for sloppy mistakes, missing blanks, or typos.

Complete your final application form(s).

When you’re satisfied with your “dry run” application, transfer everything to your final application form(s). If you’ll be sending in a paper application, choose your pen wisely. Choose a pen that won’t smudge as you write or bleed through to the opposite side of the paper.

Proofread your final application form(s).

Yes, again. You can never be too careful with this stuff. Always be aware that your admission and scholarship opportunities will be determined based upon your submissions, and take the appropriate amount of caution.

Include or attach payment.

Applications cost money (unless you’ve obtained a fee waiver), so don’t forget to include the correct payment amount with your application.

Submit everything.

Once you are absolutely, positively certain that your entire packet is ready to go, it’s time to send it off. If you’re submitting online, make sure all documents are properly attached and send it off with confidence. If you are sending in a paper version, use your printer to address the envelope you’ll be using. Make sure the envelope is oriented properly in the printer. Double-check the addresses. Make sure you place a check in the envelope or include credit card payment information on the application form (if/where you’re prompted to do so). Include all of the appropriate documents and attachments, seal up your envelope, and stamp it. I recommend taking your applications directly to the post office, but maybe that’s just me being neurotic.

Your application is now officially on its way! Time to celebrate! …But not for too long. You’ll still need to pay for school, so when you’re ready, you’ll need to gather up your most recent tax documents, complete your taxes, submit your FAFSA (for domestic students), and apply for financial aid.

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Grad apps, Step 6: Write your application essays.

By heather posted February 19, 2009

Essays and Personal Statements

6 of 8 in a series

You know yourself.

Adcoms, however, don’t know you. All they have to go on is your GPA, some test scores, some letters from some people who know you, and these: your application essays and/or personal statement. With that said, your essays and personal statements are, well, personal. So I can’t (or won’t) tell you what you should write.

What I can–and will–tell you is what characteristics your essays should and should not have. There are reasons adcoms ask specific questions: 1) to figure out how well you can follow directions, 2) to learn more about your writing and communication skills, and 3) to find out more about your specific qualifications for their programs. Here’s a good starter list of dos and don’ts:

DO Be honest.

DON’T “stretch” the truth.

Never, ever “stretch the truth” in an application essay or personal statement. More often than not, these kinds of things have a way of coming back to bite you. Think of it this way: the applications process is tricky enough on its own. You’ll have enough to keep track of with your various schools and programs and different essay questions and personal statement guidelines and deadlines. You’ll need to make sure you’re naming the right school, sending the right targeted letters of recommendation, meeting the right deadlines, answering the right essay question, and keeping to the appropriate margins and word counts for each school’s essays. Telling the truth means you have that much less to remember.

There are ways to deal with the less-than-pleasant elements of your past as they apply to graduate applications. There are few things that are absolute deal-breakers. Should you need to address something like a grade slump, an altercation with the law, or a blemish in your employment past, adcoms want to know that you learned a valuable lesson from the experience and that the problem is in your past and won’t happen again.

Besides, admissions folk see enough applications to develop some pretty good instincts on honesty, fluff, and outright falsehoods in applications, and I’ve heard plenty of stories about applicants being asked about elements of their applications in interviews. If you have to lie to get into a program, it’s not the right program for you. Trust that the admissions people know who and what they’re looking for, for reasons that are quite often beyond an applicant’s knowledge and/or understanding. They’re professionals. Trust them; if you’re who/what they’re looking for, then you’ll get in… and if not, well… that just wasn’t the school or program for you.

DO: Use spelling and grammar checkers.

DON’T: Submit any writing samples with spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.

In the age of built-in spelling- and grammar-check, there is absolutely no valid excuse for submitting a writing sample that contains spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. Such blunders are often considered inexcusable, and rightly so. If you’re applying to graduate studies, your most basic writing skills should display competence. A lack of such attention to detail also reeks of laziness and shoddy work, traits not so highly sought after in the graduate school admissions process.

But beyond mere lack of error, there are other crucial elements to keep in mind.

DO: Follow directions.

DON’T: Exceed the allotted word limit, page count, or margins.

You are not the first person to feel like you are worth more than 500 words or two pages or whatever the particular limitations might be. I know I might sound repetitive here, but trust that the adcoms know what they’re doing (not to mention that they’re really, really busy).

Great writing necessarily involves great editing. A truly great story includes all of the relevant story elements and nothing superfluous. Need more tangible examples? Think about what happens to a joke’s punchline when you flub the build-up with too much padding, or recall a bad movie you’ve seen that seemed to carry on and on for hours with little plot development (“Swept Away” comes to mind), only to leave you feeling underwhelmed at the end (and robbed of three hours of your life).

But don’t take my word on it: When asked why he wrote a particularly lengthy letter, Mark Twain allegedly replied, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” A little bit of editing can go a long way.

DO: Answer the questions asked.

DON’T: Stray from the topic.

To do so, your submissions must be on-point. Failure to do so can cause adcoms to think one of two things about you: 1) you didn’t think the question asked was worthy of an answer, that you know what they want better than they do, or 2) you’re unable to comprehend directions. Neither portrait is a desirable one.

Here’s something important to consider: In the applications for many different schools offering similar programs, you may find a high degree of overlap in essay question prompts. While it is definitely okay–and smart, even–to consolidate your efforts by using some of your answers to similar questions from previous applications, you should make absolutely certain that you have adequately tailored the response you submit to the particular question asked on the correct school’s application.

DO: Communicate skillfully.

DON’T: Answer the question(s) like a simple Q&A.

This is a writing sample–a rare chance for you to shine–and, as such, your writing should positively exhibit your communication skills. Being free of spelling or grammatical mistakes is a start, and staying on point is also helpful, but you’ll need to exhibit some real panache if you want to stand out from the crowd.

In regards to tone, know your audience. Schools are looking for serious students, so you’ll want to convey maturity and commitment in your writing. The structure of your writing should illustrate your ability to introduce, develop, and conclude an idea. Your language and sentence structure should be complex enough to exhibit your linguistic skills, but shouldn’t be plugged with excessive displays of esoteric language.

DO: Be true to yourself in your writing sample.

DON’T: Copy someone else’s personal statement or write your essays “by committee.”

Remember that this might be a school’s best chance of getting to know the real you. Be yourself in your essay. Speak in your own voice. Don’t retool the essay of someone else who got into XYZ school, and don’t get the input of your twelve closest friends and family members. Doing so only makes it more likely that your writing samples, when considered as a whole package, will sound disjointed and confusing. They’re not applying to XYZ school; you are. You know your reasons better than anyone. You know why this is the perfect school or program or field of study for you better than anyone else does. No one will be a stauncher advocate in this process.

Trust your own voice and run with it. Many applicants choose to write personal narratives, others choose to write persuasive essays, while others feel that neither option fits and choose a style more personal. There is no right or wring way to write, so long as you stick to the dos and don’ts above. Find the best way you can use this opportunity to prove to schools why you’re the right fit for their program and get to work.

Finally…

DO: Write several drafts over time.

DON’T: Procrastinate until you have only two days to submit your essays.

Trust me on this one: you’ll need time to be able to edit your essay(s) properly. Even the best writers can’t edit their own material without giving the brain some time to recover from writing mode. Give your head a little time to distance yourself from the first draft. Come back a few days, maybe a week later, and give it a fresh look. You’ll be much better equipped to find the problems in flow that need to be fixed or the linguistic oddities you’ll want to smooth out. I recommend dedicating the same day every week for a month to the process. On your application calendar, maybe block off every Saturday morning for the month before you intend to submit your applications. Use this time for drafting, writing, editing, revising, and finalizing your essays. You’ll be glad you did.

Now go get inspired! Read a few pages from your favorite book or poem or speech. Take some notes. Print out the essay questions or personal statement guidelines and start outlining what you want to say. When you’re ready to move on, we’ll get on with the business of submitting those applications you’ve been working on for so long!

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Grad apps, Step 2: "Manage" the application process.

By heather posted February 8, 2009

Managing the application process

2 of 8 in a series

If you’ve completed your research, you should be ready to move on to the next step and begin some real work. But before you start plugging away, it’s smart to organize your application process. With that in mind, here’s the next step on our list:

Step 2: Manage the application process.

Managing the process– much like you might manage a project at work– will help ensure you meet all deadlines and obligations while maintaining high quality standards in your applications. Here are the most important elements you’ll want to be sure to work into your routine:

Tend to your relationships with potential recommenders.

Your recommendations will play a big role in your applications, and you should ensure that you’re getting absolutely top-notch recommendations. And while noted alumni are great recommenders for targeted schools, the most important characteristic of good recommendations are that they come from people who are credible, know you well, and can speak to your aptitude and preparedness for graduate work.

While your recommendations can come from a variety of sources (academic, professional, personal), most schools have preferences regarding at least some of your recommendations. In fact, many schools prefer to receive at least one academic and one professional recommendation. If you’ve been out of school for a while, it may take some time to hunt down an old professor who remembers you well and fondly enough to sign his or her good name to your application to graduate studies.

Start early, and make sure you show your gratitude at each step of the process. If it’s been a while since you’ve spoken or seen each other, write a quick email to say hello. Maybe invite him/her to lunch (you’ll buy, of course). Make sure this person feels comfortable recommending you strongly; if you’re unsure, you might want to ask just that: “How strongly would be be comfortable recommending me to — school/program?” It never hurts to ask, as long as you are courteous.

Sort your list of possible schools into categories.

At this early point in your application process, you probably aren’t sure where you’ll score on standardized tests required for admission. But you should have done plenty of research on the schools that offer your desired program. Sort your list of possible schools into three categories:

“reach” schools, where you may be unlikely to gain admission, but would nonetheless love to attend;
“target” schools, where you are competitive for admission and would like to attend; and
“safety” schools, where you have a very high likelihood of admission.

While you may not be absolutely certain which schools are “reach”, “target”, and “safety” schools until after you get your scores back, you probably have some early inclinations one way or the other about many schools. You can always rearrange your list later.

I’m a spreadsheet addict, so I personally recommend making a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is probably the best way to organize your list of schools. You’ll be able to add columns for “applied” (date submitted), “complete” (date application is “complete” at each school), “interview” (date), “financial aid” (dollar amount), “tuition” (total), and “decision” (outcome). You may want to include other columns as well, but these should get you started. A spreadsheet with all important information will make selecting the best school for you much easier once all the columns get filled out, and you can always delete a row if you decide that a particular school isn’t right for you.

Make an application calendar.

Get a calendar to track important dates for admissions process. Include the following:

Last acceptable test administration.

From your list of schools, determine the last possible test date you can take to meet all application deadlines. Since you’ll likely have multiple schools, be sure to note the earliest of the test deadlines. Write this date in big, bold letters. Red, preferrably. Then plan backwards for at least one possible retake, should the worst happen. Make that your target test date, although you may want to back up your target test administration date even further to reduce your test anxiety a bit.

Financial aid/scholarship deadlines.

Many schools have scholarship deadlines prior to regular admission deadlines, especially for larger scholarships. If you plan to apply for them, be sure to note the relevant dates and schools in your application calendar. You should also try to get your taxes done as early as possible, since most schools have a financial aid paperwork deadline of March 1st, and for U.S. schools, you’ll need to submit a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) in order to be considered for any need-based assistance or federally-backed loans. While you can estimate your taxes, I recommend doing them and getting the right numbers in rather than stressing about whether or not your paperwork is correct.

Early decision application deadlines.

You’ll probably have one absolute dream school. This is the school you should apply to “Early Decision” or “Early Action.” Early decision applicants tend to have slightly better odds than do regular decision candidates, but in order to get the bump, you’ll need to commit to that school. In your early decision agreement, you must agree to withdraw other applications if you are accepted to Dream University. Notifications for early decision to fall start programs generally arrive by January 15th.

Regular decision application deadlines for your program start date.

Make sure you mark all the various RD deadlines for each school to which you plan to apply. Deadlines usually occur in clusters (on the 1st and 15th of different months), and many schools have application “rounds.” Applying to an earlier application round means there’s more space in the class for you. Apply early, and don’t miss those deadlines.

Program start dates.

Don’t forget to mark the date that classes start at each school. That’s what the application process is all about! It’ll help you remember why you’re doing all the legwork, plus it’ll help you organize the major life changes you’ll need to make as you get ready to start graduate school.

Setup a both a physical grad school file box and a virtual file folder.

Go to Office Depot, Staples, or your office supply store of choice to pick up a portable file box and hanging file folders (unless you already have these on hand). Make a file for each school/program to which you intend to apply. You may choose to organize your files alphabetically or by preference (put your top choice program first, for instance).

Once you’ve made your physical files in your grad school file box, visit each school or program’s website. While you’re there, bookmark all important pages and organize them into folders in your web browser. Print out the admissions information, tuition and fees information, and the application form. Place a hard copy in the appropriate folder in your file box.

If you used a calendar program on your computer, then you should make an additional calendar folder. Print out a copy of each month between now and the final deadline for applications at the latest school’s deadline and slip the calendar pages into the folder so you’ll never miss a deadline.

Organize your finances for graduate school.

Since most of us will need some combination of personal contributions, scholarships, grants, and loans, you’ll need to make sure your finances are in order before you start the loads of paperwork that await you. Find out where you stand, and do your best to maintain or improve your financial outlook before your paperwork is submitted. Some tips:

Get a credit report.

Know your credit score so you’re not caught off guard by an instance of identity theft or some oversight from a move five years ago that can prevent you from getting loans. Do everything in your power to maintain a good credit score or improve a weaker one in the time allotted. Google “credit repair” and research the many options available to you.

Make an application budget.

Applying to graduate school isn’t cheap, and there are many “hidden” expenses people often forget. Be sure to include all application fees, standardized test fees, test prep/prep material costs (more on that in part 3 of 8), transcript/paperwork fees, recommender thank-you lunches, travel funds for school visits and interviews, a clothing allowance for interviews, interviewer and recommender “thank you” cards, and a seat deposit at the school you finally choose. Put the alloted budget into savings and don’t touch it until you need it (or start saving it, if you don’t have it available yet).

Put the amount you intend to pay out-of-pocket for tuition into savings and don’t touch it.

Based on your FAFSA and/or other financial aid information, you will be provided with an expected contribution. Try to get an estimate of that as early as possible so you can put that money away until tuition is due. Again, if you don’t have it, start saving now.

Once you have your process all setup, you’re ready to get to the first major hurdle: taking your test(s). When you’re ready, look for my next blog entry for tips on preparing for graduate admissions tests.

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The Graduate School Application Process

By heather posted February 6, 2009

Where to begin

1 of 8 in a series

Okay, so you’ve decided you want to go to graduate school. Now what? This blog entry and the following seven will build and flesh out a “To Do” list for you, helping you find answers to questions from “What should I study?” to “How can I get financial aid?” Each entry will focus on one step of the process so that you know where to start and what to do next.

I strongly recommend starting this list a year before you plan to start graduate school, but this can definitely be done in six months or less; you’ll just need to be more resourceful in some steps. Here’s a good ordered list of things to do to get yourself started (we’ll fill in notes on each step in this and subsequent entries):

Research.
Manage the application process.
Prepare for and take the appropriate test(s).
Get your transcripts sent.
Solicit and obtain letters of recommendation.
Write your application essays.
Complete and submit your application(s).
Apply for financial aid and scholarships.

“But how do I dive into this list?” you ask. Well, let’s start at the beginning:

Step 1: Research.

Before you do anything else, do your research. Make sure you investigate each of the following points:

Research which graduate programs of study may be right for you.

Identify people who are in positions you’d like to obtain, and find out their educational backgrounds. Ask them, ask co-workers, and check company websites.

Research which graduate program formats are available to and appropriate for you.

Once you’ve identified the program(s) you wish to pursue, research the different program formats offered at different institutions. Many grad programs now offer many alternatives to tradition full-time studies. Look into part-time, fully-employed (weekend), and “virtual” (online) options that could allow you to continue working while you’re in school or enroll in courses at a non-local institution. Many employers will even contribute to tuition for such programs!

Find out which schools offer your intended program(s) of study in your desired format(s).

You may want to start with nearby institutions or with those with name prestige in your chosen field. U.S. News and World Reports publishes (in print and online) annual rankings for a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs—and breaks them down by specialties, even—as do countless other organizations. Google “business school rankings” or “cost-effective master’s degree” or “part-time law school” and see how many results you find.

Determine the costs associated with graduate school.

Using the schools’ websites and other published resources, figure out annual tuition and expenses (books, parking, etc.) and, if you’ll need to relocate, expected cost of living. You can use a cost of living comparison tool, which you’ll also easily find online.

Figure out the reasonable expected Return on Investment for your graduate studies.

Many published rankings’ sources and school websites offer average starting salary for graduates of each particular program. You’ll need to be a bit more persistent in your research, but different schools offer different options. A strong alumni network, high rankings, and reputation are just a few factors that may impact graduates’ starting salaries. Before you hand over much of your hard-earned (and, likely, hard-borrowed) money, pick the best investment… because that’s exactly what you’re doing: investing in your future.

Research the schools and their surroundings.

If you’ll need to relocate for school, you’ll want to make sure that the city in which your program is located is, in fact, a place you can live comfortably. Research the size and demographics of the towns, check message boards, and visit the campus and city if you can. In addition, many schools place recent graduates best locally, so it’s definitely wise to make sure you like the area before you commit to two or more years there.

Once you’ve gotten a handle on your program and school research, you’re ready to start applying. In my next blog entry, we’ll focus on how to properly manage the application process.