I am often asked by undergraduate students for advice about
how to get into graduate school. In the continuing spirit of recent “how to”
posts on this blog (listed at the end of this post), it seems timely to collect these thoughts in one place. I
will start with the obvious stuff, where I nevertheless hope to provide some
novel insights, and I will then move to the less obvious, but perhaps just as
important, ideas.
1. Grades
Let’s get this obvious one out of the way first. Good grades
will, of course, help in a variety of contexts, most obviously in getting
scholarships/fellowships (which, sadly, are largely based on such things) and
in getting chosen by admissions committees for internal funding at universities.
(Here I am talking about grades in classes, not standardized tests, although the
latter can also matter in some cases – this is
country/university/department-specific.) For students with exceptionally good
grades, getting into graduate school is rather easy and, although the
suggestions below will help even such people, this post is mainly intended for
the students who have less-than-stellar grades. The reality is that good grades
is not a perfect predictor of success in graduate school and, indeed, many
outstanding graduate students had mediocre grades as undergraduates. While not
suggesting I was “outstanding” in graduate school, I provide my transcripts
below as evidence that someone with very poor grades in their early
undergraduate career can get into graduate school. (My grades were much better
in the last two years of undergrad, which I am sure helped.) In short, strive for good
grades but, if you don’t get them it isn’t a death knell for your graduate
school aspirations.
 |
| My undergrad transcript from a period when I was having way too much fun. |
2. Scholarships/fellowships
Monetary constraints mean that professors take fewer
students than they would like. As a result, obtaining a scholarship/fellowship
that covers your salary/tuition/fees will give you have a huge advantage. In
fact, you will pretty much have your pick of the litter when the professor
doesn’t have to worry about these issues. Success in getting a
scholarship/fellowship depends mostly on grades (but also on the following two
points): hence, if you have good grades, you
should apply for every decent scholarship/fellowship you can find (often times
with the help of your proposed supervisor). (Note that deadlines for applications
are often far earlier than you might image, nearly a year in advance of when
you would start graduate school – so check the options as early as you can.) In
my experience, success mostly comes from programs in your home country. For
instance, I have had students with support from SENACYT (Panama), CONACYT
(Mexico), CONICYT (Chile), CONCYTEC (Peru), CAPES (Brazil), SENESCYT (Ecuador),
NSF (USA), FQRNT (Quebec), and NSERC (Canada). A number of other options exist based
on various foundations, companies, or organizations. It is impossible to
over-stress how beneficial scholarships/fellowships can be – they evaporate the financial worries, which are often otherwise paramount.
3. Research experience
A much better indicator of success in graduate school is
research experience. Thus, make sure you engage in serious research as an
undergraduate. Having done so shows you have an interest and ability to do
research and it will (hopefully) get you a good letter of recommendation from a
professor. Like good grades, this piece of advice might seem obvious: however,
I do have something novel to say about it. Too
much research experience (working in many labs) is perhaps not optimal unless
you have something to show for it. If you bounce around through a bunch of
short positions in research labs without publishing anything from the work, it
suggests: (1) you can’t stick to any particular thing (you are a research
tourist), (2) you can’t see anything through to completion (you are a research
tourist), and (3) you don’t know what you want to do (you are a research
tourist). Thus, research experience is critical but best when sustained in one
or a few labs and – even better – when accompanied by publication success. (Note
also that publications in peer-reviewed journals are vastly more important than
conference presentations, posters, and pretty much anything else in this
context.)
4. Publications
Relatively few students publish as undergraduates – yet some
do. If you are one of those few, then you have a huge jump on the competition –
even if they have better grades. So how to succeed in doing so? First, seek out
a research lab that has a history of undergraduates being authors on papers,
ideally as first author. Second, discuss your hope in publishing from the
outset of your meetings with the professor (hopefully they bring it up before
you have to). Third, carefully follow the suggestions and advice and
prescriptions of your research mentor (the prof and the postdoc or grad student
with whom you work) as to how to proceed. Note
that publishing your work takes vastly longer than you might expect, so you
need to get started early, work hard and enthusiastically, and progress
efficiently and rapidly. Of course, it is ideal to have a paper accepted
before applying for graduate school but having something submitted is the next
best thing. (Note that the specific journal doesn’t matter as an undergrad – open access
such as PLoS ONE is fine.) Given the time involved, it is important to get
involved in research BEFORE your final year – or stay an additional year to
focus on research.
5. Contact your hoped-for supervisor
It is absolutely essential to contact your hoped-for
graduate supervisor(s) long before the application deadline. Start a
conversation with them about research possibilities and administrative hurdles,
volunteer in their lab (if local), and stick with them if you don’t get in on
your first try. Most supervisors will start to feel a personal responsibility
for a student that persists in their interest and will work harder and harder
to get that student a position. Indeed, I
suspect that personal experience and sustained interaction with a proposed
supervisor is the most critical determinant of admission to graduate school apart
from having a research publication. Here are some further ideas. When you
contact potential supervisors (and you should definitely contact a number
of them), DO NOT use a generic
email. It is essential that the supervisor think that you are contacting them
specifically because you want to work with them – not that you are shot-gunning
the faculty lists of universities. Multiple times, I have been discussing students
that I hope to accept with another prof, and the prof has said “Oh, that
students has also applied to work with me.” Awkward.) Of course, some
copy/pasting of text between emails to different supervisors will save time but
DO make sure the font is consistent
through the email – otherwise it is clear you are copy/pasting, and you are not
only shopping, but you are sloppy to boot. DO
have some ideas for research but also be flexible. In many cases, professors
have funding for particular projects and are much more likely to accept a
student who is willing to work in that area (of course, the student should
bring novel perspectives to that project).
6. Meet your supervisor in person
Email (keep emailing until they respond) and skype and letters are great starting points but most profs will
want to meet prospective students in person. Sometimes universities or
departments pay for this (at Ivy League schools, for example) and sometimes the
professor will pay. If none of this is suggested, however, and the prospects
are looking good (the prof seems genuinely interested), find a way to set up an
in person meeting, even if you have to travel there on your own dime. If you
get the position, the trip will pay for itself many times over (and the prof
will feel guilty if he/she doesn’t accept you) and, if you don’t get the
position, at least you will have an interesting trip somewhere new. I won’t
provide any advice on how to act on such trips, except to say that you
should be enthusiastic but not overbearing.
7. Don’t be picky
If you don’t have stellar grades and lack a publication, you
can still be successful if you don’t restrict yourself to a particular location
or research topic. Particular places/supervisors/projects are in high demand
and, without grades and publications, you are unlikely to be competitive for
them. Instead, focus on smaller schools
in what might seem like less appealing places (I won’t list any here but I
am sure you can think of some – and it is critical to remember that the
professor is much more important than the institution in which they work). The
competition for positions in such situations will be much lower and profs will
be much more willing to look beyond grades and publications, especially if the
student is clearly interested and motivated. As for projects, you obviously
don’t want to work on something you dislike but, beyond that, the key is to
establish your research credentials and get some publications – then you can be
more picky in the future. Master’s degrees can be optimal in such cases.
8. Seek out new professors
Here is one trick that, in combination with the previous two
points, can tip the balance in your favor. In fact, this strategy has worked
for a number of students to whom I have suggested it. New professors generally
have big plans and good money (start-up funds) and are anxious to get their
research going but, at the same time, are not yet on the radar of most students
looking for supervisors. These profs really need to get their lab populated and
don’t have the same calibre of applicants as do established researchers (who
also often lack flexible funds, such as start-up). Also, by new profs, I mean the newer the better. Indeed, the very best
tactic is to contact professors WHO HAVE BEEN HIRED BUT HAVE NOT YET STARTED
THEIR POSITION – sometimes they aren’t even listed on the departmental webpages.
(Often times you have to find these people by calling the department or by word
of mouth when talking to other people at the university.) These profs will
likely have few or no applicants, will have most of their funds unspent, and will
be at the peak of their motivation to get rolling.
In closing
Those are my suggestions for how to get into graduate
school. I hope they help. Yet I need to close with the two most important
pieces of advice. The second-most important is Do not give up! Unless you have good grades, getting in graduate
school can be a slog. However, if you follow the above advice, you will
eventually succeed. I know of many instances where a student did not get a
position in one year, but stuck with it and eventually succeeded, through some
combination of a new publication, a new scholarship/fellowship, or a growing
sense of guilt/responsibility/investment on the part of a professor.
This leaves the most important piece of advice for last –
perhaps you actually don’t want to go to graduate school. Graduate school is an
immense amount of work – just read PhD comics if you want to get a taste of it
– and it can be very stressful. Moreover, continuing in academia or, more
generally, getting a job in your chosen field at the level for which you will
be qualified will be even more difficult than getting into graduate school.
Thus, you should go to graduate school for the right reasons. One of those
reasons might (paradoxically) be “I
simply want to play around doing research for a while.” In this case, the
stress decreases a bit because it doesn’t matter too much how well you do and
you don’t care so much if you don’t get a great position in your field. (Of
course, this is the worst reason from the perspective of your supervisor – so note
that I am not endorsing it.) Another reason is that a career in research is what you really, really want to do with
your life. In this case, you will have to work very hard, and success isn’t
guaranteed – so proceed with caution and try to have a Plan B. Yet, as far as I
am concerned, research – especially in academia – is the best possible job one
can have except perhaps for things such as professional fisherman or professional rock
climber or successful artist or acclaimed musician. Either way, you had better
stop reading blogs and get to work!
 |
| See http://rccblog.com/2011/03/04/grad-school/ |
Some final small points: The wording of your communications
with potential supervisors can be very important. Here are some suggestions for
avoiding pitfalls.
Don’t talk about how “world class” the institution or
department is – a sort of institution sycophancy. The person you are contacting
has their own opinion about the quality of their institution and you can’t win either
way. If you say it is world class and the prof thinks it isn’t, then he/she
will think you are pandering. If the prof thinks it is world class, then he/she
doesn’t need you telling them this. Moreover, the prof wants to think you are
interested in working with them rather than you simply want a degree from the
institution. (And, of course, the prof is much more important than the
institution anyway – at least from the position of a grad student.)
Be careful in talking about how wonderful the professor is –
a more traditional sort of sycophancy. This makes most profs uncomfortable. If
you are contacting them, then you obviously have a high opinion of their
research and so saying this is just redundant. Moreover, most profs want their
students to be collaborators rather than minions and so would rather, when
possible, not establish a severe hierarchy. Of course, considerable variation
exists in how individual profs feel about this.
----------------------------
Previous posts in this "How to" series
4. How to choose a journal (+ part 2)
Helpful post.
ReplyDelete