Quick Tips: GRE

Between the two of us one did very well on the GRE and the other did . . . well, let's just remember that at least one of us did quite well.  The GRE, or Graduate Record Examination, is a standardized test that a large number of graduate programs use as a criteria for admission.  

Learn from both our success and our failure by following these tips.  

Tip 1: Don't let the GRE take away from other, significant application building experiences - but spend some time studying.  In other words, if you have to choose between an extra opportunity to work in a lab or taking a GRE course, go with the lab experience.  Most graduate programs will care much more about a unique experience than a GRE score that nearly any intelligent person can replicate.

Tip 2: Take it early.  Or take it late.  Depends on your schedule.  Think about when the added burden of taking a timed exam will add the least amount of stress in your life.  All things being equal, however, we'd suggest taking it early because you can always take it again.

Tip 3: Study.  Buy a book or take a class.  Classes are more time consuming and cost more money, but they absolutely will help your score.  If you have the dedication to buy a book, brush up on your math and memorize some vocabulary words on your own - then take that route instead.  

Tip 4: Take practice exams.  Lots of them.  The best way to learn how to take the GRE is to practice.  Take a practice exam when you sign up for the exam (the GRE website gives you access to several) and take one later after you've spent some time studying.

Tip 5: Finally, on the day of the exam, don't psych yourself out.  Be sure to take your time and get the first few questions of each section correct, and from there - simply relax and do your best.

Filling out Graduate School Applications

In this *very* brief post, I hope to give you some tips for filling out graduate school applications. 

Tip #1 - Ask your friend, advisor, parent, sister, and whoever else is willing, to double check your materials for typos and errors.  A silly typo or mistake probably won't eliminate you from contention, but you want to do what it takes to look professional and put together.  But don't let anyone write your application for you.  If your family is anything like mine, they will have a lot of experience applying for undergraduate programs, but won't have a whole lot of experience applying to graduate school.  

Tip #2 - A Statement of Purpose is NOT a Personal Statement.  Graduate school applications are different from applications for undergraduate schools.  A graduate program committee really doesn't give a shit about your sob story about losing a pinky finger shortly after your family came to the United States.  They don't care about your battle to lose weight and what it taught you about the meaning of life.  Unless you're applying to a program related to saving the whales - they don't really give a crap about your quest to save whales last summer in the Pacific Northwest.  What they care about are your research interests and goals.  Why have you chosen this program?  Kisseyface University has an outstanding group of scholars whose research interests coincide with yours.  Explain in some detail what you're interested in and how it relates to their work.  

Tip #3 - Do your best on the GRE.  Take a class if you need to.  At the very least, purchase a study book and take practice tests.  The GRE is weighted differently by different fields and programs.  But nearly across the board, GRE scores are used when weighing applications for university wide fellowships.  How else are committees supposed to weigh applications from different departments and fields?  Nearly every field (not including professional programs and medical schools of course) utilizes the GRE in admissions, so university administrations often find themselves using the standardized test to determine who should win competitive fellowships.   

Tip #4 - Be humble and modest.  For every graduate student admitted to certain programs, there are as many as 14 capable students who get turned down.  Odds are that you will get rejected at one or more programs to which you apply.  Don't refer to a school or program as a "safety".  

Tip #5 - Talk to other people you may know who have either attended graduate school or those who are applying about their experiences.   

Looking for the Perfect Graduate Program Part I

I realized fairly early on in my undergraduate education that I had an interest in attending graduate school.  The lifestyle of the academy appealed to me.  Despite the low pay, constant stress, and sometimes agonizing pretentiousness, I felt as though I could thrive.  I knew, however, that I would only thrive under the right circumstances.  When I first began looking at graduate programs in the humanities, I was given a lot of advice.  Some of this advice was sound and some of it, well, not so much.  

The best advice I received early on was fairly simple.  If you're still in an undergraduate program, work on getting the best possible grades you can muster in your remaining courses.  Write a strong senior thesis or craft a shorter writing sample for publication in a small journal or magazine related to your field.  Also, continue to cultivate strong relationships with a handful of faculty members by visiting them in office hours.  Study for and take the standardized test required for admission to most of the programs in your field (GRE, MCAT, GMAT or LSAT depending on your field).  

When you visit the aforementioned faculty in their office hours explain to them your major interests and reasons for applying to graduate school.  Pick their brain on who the big players in the field are, where do they teach, where did they attend graduate school?  Do all the best people in your field teach at Virginia?  Minnesota?  Berkeley?  Harvard?  Check out U.S. News and World Report's Best Graduate Schools issue and try to get a field for the important schools in your field.  Many scholars will disagree with how US News ranks graduate programs, but it offers a nice starting point.  Start compiling a list with brief notes describing why they made it on the list (for example, Harvard - ranked no. 2 overall in general field, no. 4 in my proposed area, and has faculty John Doe and Jane Brilliant working on history of women living in urban high rises).  

Build up this list to the point where it is nearly unwieldy.  In conversations I had with faculty at my undergraduate institution and others in the field whom I had met, I came up with a list of about 25-30 schools.  

In our next post, I will talk about paring down that list to a more reasonable list of schools to apply.