Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting In

Graduate SchoolWinning Strategies for Getting InWith or Without Excellent Grades

Chapter 5Applying Successfully With or

Without Excellent Grades

The Easiest Ways to Improve the OddsA General Strategy for a Winning Application

The Importance of Relevant Experience

Dave G. Mumby, Ph.D

For more information visit: www.MyGraduateSchool.com

Graduate SchoolWinning Strategies For Getting InWith or Without Excellent Grades

By Dave G. Mumby, Ph.D

Published by:

Proto Press Publications

236 Beech Road

Rigaud, Quebec

Canada J0P 1P0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted inany form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying,audio- or video-recording, or by any other system of information storage andretrieval, without written permission from the author, with the exception ofincluding brief quotations in a review.

Copyright © 1997, 2004 Dave G. MumbyCover Design by Bleu Quest

Canadian Cataloguing In Publication Data

Mumby, David Gerald, 1962-Graduate school: winning strategies for getting

in with or without excellent grades

Includes index.ISBN 0-9682173-4-6

1.Universities and colleges—Canada—Graduatework—Admission. 2. Universities and colleges—UnitedStates—Graduate work—Admission. I. Title.

LB2371M85 378.1’6’0971 C97-900512-4


Disclaimer

This book is designed to provide information concerning thesubject matter covered. Its purpose is not to reprint all of theinformation that is otherwise available to the author and/orpublisher, but rather to complement, clarify, and supplement thematerial in other texts. For more information, see the many ref-erences listed in the Resources section near the back of this book.

The book deals with topics on which opinions may vary. It offersadvice that reflects the opinions of the author, and it should notbe expected that all other individuals within the academic com-munity will agree, entirely and unconditionally, with all of theideas that are expressed. The author shall have neither liabilitynor responsibility to any person who fails to get into graduateschool after reading this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any

form or by any means. Copyright © 1997, 2004 Dave G. Mumby


Chapter 5

Applying Successfully With or Without Excellent Grades

Some Easy Ways To Improve the Odds

One suggestion that you will hear often is, “Apply to more thanjust one school!” You should definitely follow this advice. By

now, you should be starting to understand why it is important toapply to several programs.

The key reasons have to do with how the selection processworks. The decisions of admissions committees and graduate super-visors are products of human judgment, based on the consideration ofseveral factors, both objective and subjective. With so much subjectiv-ity in the process, there is no way of knowing whether you will be suc-cessful in striking the fancy of any particular group of admission com-mittee members. In many cases, the prospective supervisor is the onewho ultimately decides on the application, and there could be any oneof several possible reasons why that person might not accept any par-ticular applicant.

The point is that getting into graduate school can be capriciouseven for the students with really good grades. No students should takeit for granted that they will be accepted into any particular program.

Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting InAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any


1 of 12For more information visit: www.MyGraduateSchool.com

Although you would be wise to apply to more than one pro-gram, there is no advantage in applying to a large number of indis-criminately chosen programs. You will not improve the odds if you areunrealistic about which programs you apply to. Choices must be madeon the basis of your research into what each of them has to offer, howwell they match your interests and goals, how competitive they are,and how your own credentials (including grades) are likely to stackup against the competition.

Students with weak grades and mediocre standardized testscores, and who come from small and less prestigious undergraduatecolleges, may not have much chance of getting into one of the morecompetitive and high-profile programs in their field. Applying to sev-eral such programs will just lead to more rejection letters and a biggerblow to the student’s self-esteem. It might not be worth the time andeffort, or the application fees, for such students to apply to these pro-grams. But there are dozens of other programs for which their appli-cation might be quite competitive. If you do the kind of research thatwas suggested in chapter 4, then you should have little problem fig-uring out which programs are realistic for you, in light of your quali-fications and the competitiveness of the various programs.

A similar consideration applies to students applying to pro-grams in which they compete with others to have a particular facultymember agree to supervise their graduate studies. In general, themore well-known and highly regarded the prospective supervisor isin their field, the more highly qualified students there are likely to beapplying to work with them each year. This stacks the deck against thestudents who have less sterling credentials. It is important to remem-ber that although there may be some advantages to having a graduatesupervisor who is highly accomplished and well known, this does notnecessarily mean that he or she will be a better supervisor than some-one who is less known. In fact, some brilliant researchers and scholarsmake lousy graduate supervisors. They often have more distractionsthat limit the amount of time they can spend with their graduate stu-dents.

How many programs should you apply to? There is no simpleanswer to this question, as it depends on several factors. One factor to

Chapter 5 Applying Successfully With or Without Excellent Grades All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any



consider is the cost. For each application, you will have to pay fortranscripts, standardized test scores, postage, and probably a nonre-fundable application fee, which is typically in the range of $50. Forsome programs the application fees are considerably higher. You willneed to follow up on each of your applications to make sure that allthe materials have arrived (this topic is covered in detail in chapter 9).This may involve long-distance phone calls, the costs of which canquickly add up.

Although it is generally advisable that students do not choosepotential programs based on the tuition or other costs associated withbeing a student there, this is a different issue, because paying for aneducation is one of the best personal investments you can make. Bycontrast, you are just wasting money by applying to more than a rea-sonable number of programs, or to only programs that you are clear-ly unlikely to get into.

There is also a limit to how much you can improve yourchances of being accepted by simply increasing the number of pro-grams you apply to. As you first increase the number of applications,the odds of being accepted into a suitable program increase accord-ingly. However, the law of diminishing returns begins to set in at somepoint. If you apply to too many programs, you may not be able tospend enough time on any one of the applications, and you will prob-ably end up with some applications that fall short of the quality thatcould have been there.

Consider, for example, the quality of your personal state-ments or essays. The most effective ones will be somewhat cus-tomized for each particular program. How likely are you to do thebest possible job of this with two dozen statements or essays? Evenproperly filling out an application form can take a lot of time. Thus,applying to too many programs can actually decrease your chances ofgetting into graduate school.

You also have to consider the amount of time your refereeswill be able to spend writing your letters of recommendation and fill-ing out recommendation forms. If there are substantial differencesamong the programs you are applying to in terms of their focus areas,then you want your referees to be able to write letters that are some-what customized to suit each program. It might be easy enough to askfor a small number of letters, but asking a busy professor to write two




dozen letters will likely just get you two dozen short and ineffectiveletters, if it gets you any at all. Your referees might politely reassureyou that they don’t mind filling out your recommendation forms, butI can assure you that this is rarely a pleasure, and more often a chore.You do not want to impose more than a few recommendation formson any one person.

Although several caveats have been noted, we have not real-ly discussed how many programs you should apply to. That isbecause this decision should really be made by you, and will dependon your chosen field and on other circumstances. As a general guide-line, you should probably be applying to at least four or five differentprograms that you are well-qualified for, and probably no more than tenor twelve. If you are applying to the competitive professional-degreeprograms, then you might want to apply to a few more.

A General Strategy for a Winning Application

It is important to remember that applying to graduate school is a com-petition between you and the other applicants to the same program. Ifyou have a mediocre GPA, you are starting out at a disadvantage to



REMEMBER THIS IMPORTANT RULE

If you are trying to overcome a weak GPA, don’tapproach the application process in the same way asthe majority of graduate school applicants. You mustdo some things differently, and you must do mostthings better. Lucky for you, most students don’t havea very good idea of what they are doing when theyapply to graduate school. They are unaware of theirmistakes. With a little bit of insight, you can do better.


those applicants with very good or outstanding GPAs. One aim of thisbook is to show you how you can overcome this disadvantage andactually obtain your own advantages.

Now that you know how the selection process works in mostcases, you can appreciate the true nature of the competition. The com-petition is for the positive regard of the prospective supervisor or afew people on an admissions committee, and GPA is only one of sev-eral factors that will determine which applicants win. Some programsreceive hundreds of applications each year, whereas others receiveonly a handful. Successful applicants usually do several things thatthe unsuccessful applicants don’t do, and they often avoid makingsome of the same mistakes.

Most students submit all of the required components of theirapplication (i.e., transcripts, standardized test scores, a personal state-ment, letters of recommendation, application fee, etc.) and then sitback and hope for the best. The success of their application is now inthe hands of others — the individuals on the admissions committeeand/or the prospective graduate supervisor — people who arestrangers, and therefore, who know very little about the individualapplicants and care even less about them.

By now, you should be starting to realize the foolishness ofsuch complacency. You will soon know what to do differently, realiz-ing that how well your application fares depends on the extra careyou put into it and the extra measures you take. You will be able toproceed with confidence.

Aim from the outset to set yourself apart from the otherapplicants with whom you are competing. You can accomplish thisby making your application unique, which does not mean beingstrange or bizarre. It means rising above the mediocrity of the typ-ical applicants, even when your qualifications are not really anybetter.

The Importance of Relevant Experience

Applying to graduate school is, in many respects, like applying for ajob. Anyone who has ever applied for a job knows the importance ofhaving previous experience in the same or a similar kind of work. It is




not impossible to get a job without previous experience — it’s justmuch harder to do so. All other things being equal, most jobs will goto applicants with suitable experience.

Most students recognize the importance of getting relevantexperience in research or fieldwork prior to applying to graduateschool. Indeed, relevant experience is one of the most important of thenonobjective criteria that admissions committees and prospectivesupervisors assess in graduate school applicants. For some programsit is virtually a requirement. Like job applicants, graduate schoolapplicants who already have some practical experience in their fieldare more likely to perform well because of the knowledge and skillsthey possess.

From the point of view of both the employer and the gradu-ate admissions committee, the experienced applicants have a lowerrisk of failure because they have previously demonstrated an abilityto do the kinds of work that will be required of them on the job or ingraduate school. The main advantage to the prospective employer isthat the experienced applicant will require less training than a naiveone, thus saving the employer time and money. Similarly, graduateschools benefit from savings in the cost of administering their pro-grams when their students perform well and earn their degrees in atimely fashion.

Job applicants, for the most part, will usually benefit fromhaving previous experience only if this experience also serves to ben-efit the prospective employer. By contrast, there are many additionaland direct benefits to the student who obtains as much relevant expe-



Research or other relevant work-experience opportunities forundergraduates do not exist in all fields. For example, the“vertical” nature of some sciences, like Mathematics orPhysics, requires that students first obtain a working knowl-edge of fundamentally complex subject matter before theycould ever hope to participate in original research. Academicperformance (i.e., grades) tends to be weighted more heavilyin the evaluation of applicants to programs in these fields.


rience as possible prior to applying to graduate school. First, suchexperience often gives students an opportunity to find out in advancewhat a career in their field of interest might be like. If the experienceis not enjoyable, students can save themselves from years of trainingfor a career they would ultimately dislike. If the experience is enjoy-able, a student might become even more focussed and determined topursue a career in that field. This determination will serve them wellin graduate school.

As we will discuss later on, getting relevant experience is alsoessential to lining up the best letters of recommendation and for writingan effective personal statement for your graduate-school application.From the point of view of an admissions committee or prospectivesupervisor, the student who has sought out relevant work experiencehas already demonstrated the kind of initiative and interest in their fieldthey will need to be a successful graduate student.

Of course, there are some areas of graduate study andresearch for which there are no obvious ways for an undergraduatestudent to get preparatory experience outside of a classroom. Forinstance, it is hard to imagine how a Mathematics student could getinvolved in original research in his or her field before first taking sev-eral semesters of advanced classes at the graduate level. One could listother examples, but the real problem is that students often fail to real-ize the number of ways there are to get the experience they need forgraduate school.

This is an area where an undergraduate advisor might be ableto help you if this person can tell you how students in your depart-ment typically obtain relevant experience. The advisor will be able totell you what classes require students to work on a research project forcourse credit, or whether there is an opportunity for you to do anindependent study. The advisor might also be able to tell you whatkinds of off-campus employment or volunteer opportunities exist inyour locale, or they might be able to direct you to someone who canprovide you with this type of information.

It is common in some departments for professors to hire stu-dents to work as part-time or full-time research assistants and paythem from a research grant. If you ask, an advisor will probably beable to tell you which faculty members in your department tend toprovide such opportunities to students. Ask other students in the




department if they know anything about such opportunities. Checkdepartmental bulletin boards for help-wanted ads.

Find out if your school runs a work-study program. These areusually government-sponsored programs designed to share the costof employing students in relevant work, often with faculty membersin certain departments who can provide such opportunities. Manywork-study programs are intended only for financially needy stu-dents, so not everyone is eligible.

Don’t be shy about seeking opportunities to gain essentialexperience. There is nothing wrong with approaching professors andasking if they need a volunteer research assistant. You might get apleasant surprise. Some professors never solicit students to help themwith their research, but instead wait until volunteers come knockingat their door. Look for job opportunities and volunteer opportunitiesoff campus, too.

If you do get hired for either paid or volunteer work, be will-ing to make a commitment and put in sufficient time and effort sothat you will actually be of benefit to your employer or supervisor,and to their work. A mistake that some students make is to volunteerto help out for only a few hours each week, and in some such cases,once the time and effort required to train them is taken into account,the arrangement proves not to be beneficial to the person whom theywere intending to help. Someone who does not see you as havinghelped is not likely to write a strong letter of recommendation onyour behalf.



Summer is the best time to find employment or volunteeropportunities as a professor’s assistant. Many studentsthink their professors work five days a week during theacademic year and take the summer off. For many profes-sors, being free from having to deliver lectures and gradepapers during the summer means they can spend more timeon their research. This is when they are most in need ofstudents’ help.


Begin looking for opportunities early Although most studentswho are serious about graduate school eventually realize the impor-tance of getting relevant work experience related to their field, themajority of them fail to take measures to get such experience until itis too late to take full advantage of the best opportunities available. Agood time to begin trying to find relevant work experience in yourfield is in the second semester of your sophomore year or duringyour junior year.

One reason for looking for these opportunities as early as pos-sible is that you might not end up with something immediately.Perhaps you wish to work as a volunteer research assistant in the lab-oratory of one of your professors, but when you ask her about it sheregretfully tells you that her lab is already full and she really doesn’thave anything for you to do. She may suggest, however, that youcome by and ask again at the end of the semester, or perhaps next year.

Another reason to look for work-experience opportunities asearly as possible is that you might be fortunate to find something now,and also to find other relevant work doing something slightly different,or working with someone different next year. This way you wouldend up getting even more experience to cite later on in your personalstatement and another good letter of recommendation from someonewho can speak to your potential as a graduate student.

Do not be overly alarmed if you are already in your senioryear and you realize that you still do not have any work experience orother practical experience in your field. You might still have time. Butit is important that you immediately move this objective to the top ofyour priority list before it really does become too late.

Other kinds of relevant experience There are other kinds of expe-rience related to your field of study that you can acquire in additionto work experience. Whether you are in your freshman or senior year,you should make a habit of attending events hosted by your depart-ment, such as talks or colloquia by invited guests. Check the bulletinboards in your department every week to see what kinds of events are




upcoming.One straightforward reason for attending department-spon-

sored events or talks is that you will probably learn something inter-esting that you did not previously know, and it might even be some-thing that helps you in one or more of your classes. You might also gaininsight into some of the things that specialists in your field do, the kindsof careers or research that you might someday be involved in yourself.Perhaps you will discover that you would like to pursue an academiccareer like that enjoyed by some of your professors.

After a while, the faculty who attend these events will getused to seeing you around and will view you as a committed and ded-icated student who has intrinsic interest in the field. Your attendanceat such events will allow you to learn more about the professors inyour department, which may eventually provide opportunities to getto know some of them personally, thus providing the basis for a futureletter of recommendation. This is one way to begin feeling like you arepart of your department.

At the same time, you should be trying to learn as much asyou can about the faculty in your department, what their research isabout, what courses they teach, etc. It takes a while to get this sort ofintimate knowledge of your department, so begin pursuing it whileyou are still in your sophomore year, if not earlier. If you are in yourfreshman or sophomore year, one of the easiest ways to find out who-is-who in your department is by talking to juniors and seniors whohave had more experience with a greater number of the professors,and who are likely to be better acquainted with the curriculum.



Most universities have some kind of mentor program,usually run by the alumni association or studentplacement services. These programs match studentswith alumni who rely on their personal and professionalexperience to advise students on possible career optionsand on the realities of the workplace. The student maybe allowed to spend some time observing or even helpingthe mentor on the job.


degree. Working for a professor is also the best way to set yourself upfor a good letter of recommendation later on.

If there is still time for you to do so prior to applying to grad-uate school, try to get relevant experience from more than one placeunder the supervision of more than one potential future referee foryour letters of recommendation.

Try to get “connected” with your department by showing upat talks and other department-sponsored events. Get to know thefaculty members, and allow them to get to know you. Professors canbe powerful people. They can have a great deal to do with your successor failure in applying to graduate school. You need their support, butyou won’t get it if they don’t know who you are.



Summer is the best time to find employment or volunteeropportunities as a professor’s assistant. Many studentsthink their professors work for five days per week duringthe academic year and take the summer off. There may be afew slackers in some departments, but for many professors,being free from having to deliver lectures and grade papersduring the summer means that they can spend more time ontheir research. This is when they are most in need of stu-dents’ help.




Summary In many graduate programs, relevant work-experienceis one of the most important nonobjective criteria by which admis-sions committees and faculty rate applicants. In any given year therewill be some applicants who have various amounts of relevant expe-rience and some who have none at all. The latter applicants are lesslikely to be selected.

Relevant experience can be gained in many ways and thetypes of opportunities that exist will vary across disciplines. Optionsfor obtaining relevant experience can be straightforward in depart-ments in which faculty are engaged in ongoing research. Working asa research assistant will give you invaluable experience, which will beof potential benefit in several ways. It may be your first close-up lookat the kind of career that will be possible after obtaining an advanced

Some advisors recommend that prospective graduate studentsapply to at least two or three programs that fit their interests.I recommend about twice that many for most students. Thiswill allow you to apply to a balance of program types. Forexample, you may wish to set your goals high and apply to oneor two highly competitive research programs, while also takinga more conservative approach and applying to a couple ofschools with large graduate programs where you would have abetter chance of getting in, and one or two programs that fityour academic needs and that are almost certain to accept you.This way you are more certain to get in somewhere. All the bet-ter if it is in one of the top programs.


Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting In

Documents

Transcript of Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting In