When
I first arrived at Gainesville Regional Airport three and a half years ago with
nothing but two suitcases and the phone number to a local taxi company, graduation
was the furthest thing from my mind. I had four years ahead of me to make the most
wonderful best friends, get addicted to caffeine, struggle my way through
general chemistry, fall in love with Gator football, and ultimately discover my
true passions. Now, here I am nearly four years later faced with the biggest
decision of my life since I decided to become a Gator: where to attend graduate
school. Of course, the first steps were easy: compile an updated resume, write
a personal statement, take the GRE, Google “where should I go to grad school,”
waste approximately 45 minutes looking at funny pictures of cats. But after I’d
done the easy part, I realized that I now had to narrow my list of basically
every graduate school in the country that offered my program down to four or
five to which I would actually apply. This is when things got serious.
Of
course, everyone will have their own criteria when choosing their ideal
graduate school. Still, I can offer some advice in making this daunting
decision, stemming from personal experience. First, be sure to talk to your
faculty advisor. If you haven’t taken the time to get to know them yet, start
now. They have worked and taught in the field that you aspire to be a
professional in, and they are a perfect resource for you in your quest for a
graduate program that will help you achieve the future you want. While you’re at
it, talk with your professors, other faculty in your department, or local
professionals who have held positions you aspire to hold yourself, achieved
things you hope to achieve, or have been places you’ve always dreamed of going.
They can tell you what it took for them to get where they are today.
Secondly,
don’t be too quick to rule out schools based on location, “rank”, or price.
Sure, these are easy criteria to help you easily narrow down your initial list,
but try to keep an open mind. Moving away from UF or away from home might seem
terrifying and impossible, but living on your own in a new, unfamiliar place
can be one of the most enriching and exciting experiences of your life. As for
rank, those statistics are definitely important and should be considered for
some graduate programs, but it is more important to find a program that really
fits your interests at a school that meets your needs and wants. Graduate
programs can be very specific and individualized, even within the same major
designation, and finding one that is as unique as your career aspirations and
learning interests will make you more satisfied with your choice. Lastly, when
it comes to price, the bottom line is that college is expensive and it doesn’t
look like it’s going to be getting any cheaper. However, before I would rule
out any program based on price, I would be sure to check and see if the
university offers research or teaching assistantships- something that in my
personal experience I have found that colleges often do not openly advertise,.
Oftentimes students who are awarded these competitive positions are able to
greatly reduce the cost of graduate school, making previously-unaffordable
programs affordable.
Finally,
my last piece of advice is to start early! For programs that begin in fall,
many graduate schools see the largest influx of applications in mid-to-late
November through the end of January. During this period, it can take much
longer for your supporting documents (transcripts, test scores, recommendation
letters) to be sent and matched to your file and for your application to
actually get reviewed. Applying early ensures that you will have plenty of time
to send or resend missing documents and perhaps even receive a decision earlier
than the majority of other applicants. Plus, no professor wants to be asked for
a recommendation letter in the middle of January when your program’s deadline
is February 1st. Applying early will lessen the stress associated
with this big decision as well as make you look more prepared and responsible
as a student and future professional.
Once
you’ve finished all your applications, it’s time to wait! The decisions will
pour in one by one, and then you’ll be faced with another big decision: which one should you pick?! I’m not quite at
that stage yet, but when I get there I’ll let you know how it goes! In the
meantime, good luck on your own graduate school applications and, as always, Go
Gators!
- Kendra Harmon
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