To Strive, To Seek, To Find

Lion's Gate at the University of Aberdeen

In this, the last of the posts on Graduate School, we take a look at some of the nitty-gritty, practical procedures of the application process.

Two years before Graduation: This is the time to begin researching programs to figure out what the admissions requirements are. If you think you’ll be headed to an institution requiring the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), you should buy books or CD-ROMS and start studying for the exam and taking the practice tests.

Two years before Graduation: Start saving money. Taking the GRE costs between one and two hundred dollars as does each program application. If you have the good fortune to be accepted at more than one place, you’ll want travel money to make campus visits to help you decide.

Two years before Graduation: If you’re considering a traditional graduate program in English, you should make sure you take all four survey courses (that is, LIT 341, LIT 342, LIT 371, and LIT 372) as an undergraduate.

One year before Graduation: Consider developing a focused SDIS (independent study) for the summer preceding your senior year. Many programs want to see a longer, scholarly writing sample (12-20 pages) and the senior Capstone (in Spring) occurs too late for most October application deadlines.

One year before Graduation: Go online to find out when GREs are being proctored at locations near you. You need to have the results to submit with your application materials in October. Keep in mind that you can sit for the exam more than once. That said, an admissions committee looks more favorably on someone who scores high on the first attempt than someone who finally scores high after multiple attempts.

Six months before Graduation: Apply to your selected graduate programs! If you’re sure that you’re well-qualified for a particular program and you’ve spoken to a representative about it, you might choose to apply to that program and no other. More traditional graduate students, however, should apply to a range of programs. For instance, even if you have a 4.0 and high GRE scores, so do scads of other applicants, and some programs, such as the U of Delaware, for instance, are choosing only twelve students from the entire nation to join their Master’s program in any given year. So, yeah, it can be pretty competitive to get into those highly-ranked programs.

Because the rejection rate is so high, most students protect themselves by applying to at least three (and usually five or six) different programs: a “safety” school (not particularly highly ranked, takes in many grad students because of freshman comp teaching, lower admissions standards), a dream school (I’ll never get in, but I meet the admissions criteria, so here goes!), and a couple of programs where you think you’ll likely end up.

Three months to one month before Graduation: If you’ve been accepted to multiple programs (congratulations!), do visit the campuses, meet the other grad students, and discuss your choices with your professors, both here and at the various universities so you can decide where you really want to spend the next 3-13 years of your life.

Unicorn Gate at the University of Aberdeen

By their junior year in college, students who are thinking about attending graduate school should start researching graduate programs online. Consider the following factors:

Location. Are you tied to a particular geographical location? Your choices will be pretty limited automatically. If you’re free to relocate, consider applying to schools in an area you’ve always dreamed of living.

Google. Start by Googling such search terms as “Masters English” or “English graduate program” or “graduate school English” to generate a great quantity of programs. You can learn a LOT through idle browsing.

Ranking. All graduate programs are not created equal. Your needs as someone pursuing secondary teaching accreditation are very different from someone who’s planning to become a research professor. Examine various programs’ application requirements: in general, programs which require the GRE are more selective. Selectivity matters mainly if you’re interested in getting a Ph.D. after your Master’s. Contact a librarian to help you find an issue of U.S. News and World Report which ranks university programs nationally. These breakdowns are very specific: for instance, USN&WR ranked the University of Minnesota 13th in GLBT studies in literature.

Faculty. So, you’re a great fan of women’s issues in the Victorian novel. Because you cited Susan Gubar in every single paper you ever wrote, you might actually like to go to Indiana University and study under her! In other words, you might select your graduate program because of the particular faculty or resources in your area of interest. The downfall of this strategy, of course, is that your favorite scholar is liable to retire or trade up to a more prestigious university.

Fundage. No two ways about it: you have to go to a program you can afford. Many people work slowly toward an advanced degree, keeping to a pace that fits their yearly budget and work schedule. More traditional graduate students hope to earn fellowships (free tuition plus a small stipend),  teaching assistantships (free tuition and a small stipend in return for teaching), or research assistantships and do not work outside of the University.

Chime in, readers! What are other factors to consider?

Gate at the University of Aberdeen

 

So what exactly IS graduate school?

Graduate school refers to programs of study leading to the conferral of degrees beyond the Bachelor’s (B.A. or B.S.) level. Students can earn Master’s Degrees (M.A. or M.S.) and then, perhaps, move on to the Doctorate (Ph.D.). Whereas high-school and undergraduate studies tend to be broad and comprehensive, graduate studies are highly specialized.

Why do people go to graduate school?

Students choose to attend graduate schools for a number of personal and/or professional reasons. Certain professions, such as elementary and high-school teaching, require a commitment to continuing education. Some graduate students think that an M.A. will make them more attractive to prospective employers or more qualified for promotion in their existing work. Many students are looking for the continued personal and intellectual development that comes with advanced study in a specific discipline. And many are  trying to find out if they want to pursue the Ph.D. and become professors.

The Benefits of the M.A.

Granted: the news about the lack of tenure-track professor positions in our last post is grim indeed. Before you completely write off graduate school, however, here’s another point to consider.

While a Ph.D. essentially trains you for a job as a scholar/researcher/teacher (that is — to be a professor), the M.A. often translates very well to work in editing, writing, coorporate content managing, advertising, public relations, publishing, and a host of other “real world” employment.

A possible strategy for someone who really wants to become a professor might be to go ahead and earn the M.A. After all, in almost all cases, you’d have to earn the M.A. before moving on the Ph.D. anyway. Working in the M.A. program, however, lets you test if you’d really like being a professor. The scholarly expectations are ramped up drastically in graduate school: you’ll discover if you stand out among your M.A. peers or not. And, likely, you’ll be a “graduate teaching assistant,”  grading piles of freshman composition essays, so you’ll discover whether you actually like teaching in a writing-heavy discipline or not.

In short, the M.A. lets you test the waters of academia. If you’re a superstar new teacher and LOVE the intense life of the mind in your graduate courses and in your master’s thesis, then you’ll probably want to go on for the Ph.D., anyway, and nobody will be able to dissuade you! But if you discover the life’s not for you, you can graduate with your M.A., your sanity, and some marketable skills. 

To learn more about why English Majors go on to graduate school, read this very long and thoughtful blog by Eastern Michigan University professor Steven Krause.

Hey, Everyone! Come see me tomorrow (Thursday, Oct 15, 3:00-6:00) in New Main. A whole bunch of graduate programs will be setting up tables and displays in the Great Hall. You can talk to representatives of several different kinds of programs — from professional schools in nursing and business to traditional scholarly programs.

I’ll be camping at Metropolitan State’s very own MLS table. MLS, you ask? Why, the Master’s of Liberal Studies Program, I reply with great excitement. See me at the fair or contact me via my campus email to discuss this interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences master’s degree in more detail.

There really is life after the bachelor’s!