Graduate School allows a student to apply greater depth of knowledge to a particular field while creating additional opportunities for professional and career development. Below are some resources that gives an overview of the application process and the benefits of pursuing this level of education.
Graduate School Resources
- Applying to Grad School: Tips, Timeline & Tools of the Trade - a wonderful, downloadable, 30-page document that covers "everything."
- Advice to Undergraduates Considering Graduate School - from Dr. Phil Agre (UCLA); great advice, regardless of your intended major; focuses mainly on the Ph.D.
- Advice to aspiring environmental economics Ph.D.'s - from Jason Wong, ENSP-EnvEcon, 2013.
- Grad school interview tips
- Graduate Record Exams (GRE) - includes practice exams
- GradSchool.com - links to overseas graduate schools
- Peterson's Guide - links to American graduate schools
- PhDs.org - has a search engine that lets you set the priorities
- University of Maryland - Graduate School
Work experience enhances a graduate school application.
- Graduate schools value the maturity that comes from real-world experience. Therefore -- unless you know exactly what you want to do and a post-graduate education is necessary immediately (e.g., law school or scholarly research) -- consider taking a few years off before heading to graduate school.
- Work experience helps you clarify your academic and professional goals; and will help you make better choices about your graduate program. "Matching" your interests with that of prospective faculty is much more important in graduate school than it was as an undergraduate.
- Start exploring graduate programs 12-15 months in advance of your planned enrollment.
Letters of recommendation & Personal statements
- Letters of Recommendation - with links to information about personal statements and resumes (Cal-Berkeley).
- How to ask a professor for a letter of recommendation (St. Olaf College)
- The Personal Statement - Purdue University Writing Lab
- Writing Application Essays (UNC-Chapel Hill)
