When to get your stuff done for Graduate School

!!!GRE information on the web!!!

Junior Year:

  1. Identify possible concepts, interests, topics in biology OR in non-biology fields you might want to pursue in graduate school.
  2. Choose advanced hour courses and electives according to your interests. Talk with your professors and graduate teaching assistants about the concepts you are studying!!
  3. Get some experience. If your interests are in the sciences, work or volunteer in a lab, find an internship or summer job in a scientific field, or conduct an informational interview with someone working in a scientific field. If your interests are outside the sciences, get some practical experience in your tentative field of interest--work in a small or large business, develop "people skills" through a part-time or summer job, coordinate projects either in class or in extra-curricular activities, work for a newspaper or publisher, etc...
  4. Begin to develop a curriculum vitae (CV) or resume. This task will help you identify your skills, interests and experiences. A good CV will help you identify areas/ideas/experiences that you might investigate before applying to graduate school.

 

Summer after Junior Year (or earlier if you are ready!):

It is time to look for specific programs!

  1. Talk with faculty who study in the field you want to enter. Faculty members know their professional peers and graduate programs. Faculty members also attend professional meetings 1-2 times per year and hear about the latest research in their fields. They are great sources of information. They can guide you to appropriate programs and researchers working in your desired field. Generate a list of possible programs or researchers to investigate.
  2. Read the literature. If you are interested in using microbes to produce enzymes, read biotechnology journals where current research and approaches are introduced. Join a professional organization (most have student memberships for a reasonable subscription rate). If you are interested in saving endangered species of lizards, the "Journal of Ichthyology and Herpetology" will give you ideas of current research and active areas of study. You might also identify a few scientists with whom you would like to work as you read.
  3. Think about where you want to live. Don't laugh--this can be an important screening factor for graduate schools. If you are determined to live in the southwest, you will obviously be investigating programs in New Mexico, Arizona, S. California, etc. A regional search of graduate programs in these areas will identify programs of interest to you.
  4. Gather information. Once you've got some way to narrow the field (by topic or geography) you can begin to use guides like Peterson's Guide to Graduate Programs in Biological Sciences. Additionally, much information is available about graduate study on the www. See the Peterson's site (www.petersons.com/) or other browsers (www.collegenet.com). These sources can provide you with addresses/phone numbers/e-mail addresses to identify possible programs, gather general information or ask specific questions.
  5. Write, call or e-mail programs that look possible for further information. You may contact 15-25 graduate schools based on your preliminary research. This initial contact will usually reach the desk of a departmental or graduate school secretary. You don't need to write a long piece---just ask for what you want (i.e. information on their PhD program in Microbiology). A packet containing the general application information, an application form, a copy of specific program requirements, list of faculty research interests and often information about the geographic location.

 

Later Summer or Fall of Senior Year:

Time to make decisions and personal contact--

  1. Evaluate the information you've collected. Often you can line up the entrance requirements, typical programs and faculty research interests of all the programs and rank them to your liking. You will find similarities between related programs.
  2. Determine what you need to do to be eligible to apply to most programs. Items can include: taking an entrance exam (or two), adding specific courses to your senior year program (in biological sciences, often biochemistry or statistics courses are required), seeking letters of reference, talking with your "concerned parties" (family, partners, others who you determine will be affected by your plans).
  3. Once you've chosen 5-10 schools to focus on, look for specifics at each program that interest you. Specific faculty, facilities, aspects of the curriculum or courses, costs, application deadlines. Make yourself a reasonable timeline for getting all the applications complete for your desired entrance date.
  4. If you can identify faculty with whom you would like to work, contact them (e-mail is an easy way). Introduce yourself as a prospective student, state your desired entry date into grad school, a short (2-3 lines) statement of your goals in grad school, indicate what interests you about their work, and ask if there will be openings in their lab, if other faculty at their institution may be doing related work, possibility of assistantship, and any other information you can glean. If you cannot identify specific faculty who you might want to work with, you can still contact the department head (who looks at all grad applications to her/his program) to answer some of the above questions.
  5. The issue of assistantships. Many graduate programs have a limited number of assistantships they can offer graduate students.
    • Teaching assistantships (TA's) are usually controlled by the department offering the course. TA's are expected to work 20 hours/week as instructors for an undergraduate course. The actual time commitment can be more or less than 20 hours/week, depending on the course.
    • Research assistantship (RA's) can be controlled by the graduate department or by an individual faculty member. RA positions require 20 hours of research work/week defined by who is paying you. If it is your graduate advisor, she/he may allow you to do your 20 hours/week on your research project. If it is a department, there may be specific duties expected requiring 20 hours/week either related or unrelated to your graduate project.

    Both kinds of graduate assistantships provide a tuition waiver (both in- and out-of-state students) and a monthly stipend. The stipend is usually enough to live in the area, but you probably won't be saving a lot of money. Make sure to ask about assistantships if you want or need one!!!!! Not all graduate students get assistantships; you may need to have an assistantship before you can consider a program. Talking with faculty at the school where you wish to apply can be the difference between being offered an assistantship or not!

  6. Other sources of funding. Graduate students may also be eligible for other types of financial assistance.
    • Graduate fellowships are funds put up by an agency, group or program which can be used toward your graduate training. Typically they are competitive, based on a research proposal. Fellowships in the sciences are often sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS--publishers of "Science") or professional organizations (such as the American Society of Microbiologists). How you use fellowship funds is often at your discretion. (examples: pay tuition, buy supplies for your research, travel to professional meetings or fund field work, hire lab/research assistants, buy a computer to draft final dissertation or interpret data--anything related to your project!) Sometimes the sponsoring agency wants a final report of findings, an accounting sheet of how funds were spent, or a professional meeting presentation. The details will be stated when you apply. You can earn a fellowship on top of a graduate assistantship. Some fellowships are renewable on an annual basis.
    • Corporate sponsors. If you have worked at a corporation, they may provide partial or full tuition reimbursement for continued education. The policy is one of the benefits many organizations advertise. The company or agency will spell out the requirements for eligibility. Some companies require that you have worked in their organization for a certain length of time before you can get reimbursed. Others may only pay for courses directly related to your career at their company. Yet others have connections with particular institutions to earn graduate credit in workplace-based programs.
    • If you plan to work in higher education (as a researcher or in another capacity), you may be able to take courses on a limited basis as a non-degree student. For example, full-time employees of UIUC can enroll in one course/semester for a minimal charge provided their supervisor approves. Some students complete all the required coursework in this fashion, then spend 1-3 years completing their graduate research project. In this way they have maintained their income for much of their graduate program and spent only 1-3 years with lower income.

 

Fall of Senior Year:

  1. Filling out applications!
  2. Get a calendar and mark when your target schools' applications are due!

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