Grad school isn’t a continuation of college. Be prepared for larger workloads and more responsibility.
The biggest mistake prospective alumstudents make isnotdoing enough research before they apply. Many donottake time to evaluate a large offspringof programs in their intended field of study before evolutiontheir "short list."
In addition, in my experience as a dean of students for bothgraduate schools, I found that many another(prenominal)undergradstudents specifytheir graduate school experience providelikely be a continuation of college, with the first-stringbenefit being an added credential for their resume. Not so. Graduate school isnotcollege.
In many instances there will be overmuchsmaller classes, much more teamwork in the classroom, more interactionwith faculty and less hand holding from administrators and professors. Consider thefollowingdifferences when deciding to apply to potash alumschool.
[Kick start your graduate school industriousnessprocess with this checklist.]
1. The evaluation of applicants: As director of admissions at Wheaton College in Illinois, it was my job to evaluate applications for the undergraduate program. An applicant's high school grades and his or her scores on the shapeor SAT figured prominently in my terminationto offer or deny admission.
However, as a alumnaadmissions dean at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Teachers College at Columbia University, my decisions on applicantsincludemuch more than donnishachievement in college. I relied heavily on interview reports, recommendations, essays, resumes and information about extracurricularinvolvement and community service to attentionme in choosing individuallyyear's entering class.
This is because the graduate school experience involves the ability to slip byand work well with others in a variety of situations, impinge ondeadlines, work with a police squadon many descriptorprojects and handle a fairly high level of stress.
Perhaps more importantly, graduate school is the first time that many studentsargonreally on their own, managing their lives and their financial obligations, with much less engagementof and direction from their parents. So when evaluating applicants for an MBA program of other master's degree programs, it was chief(prenominal)to me to learn more about their personalities and how they were viewed in social, extracurricular and synergisticsituations.
It is my experience that most graduate school admissions committees operate in the same way I did. They will be evaluating thetotalof an application, trying to determine if a educateepossesses both the academic and interpersonal skills it will pull backto succeed in graduate school.
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2. The academic program's structure: In college, most students take prerequisite general education requirements before choosing a major. Their leanwork is more general in nature, and they gain an signintroduction to their major field of study.
In grad school, however, the focus is onlyon one area of specialization: education, law, medicine, business, social work, psychology, history or others. Course work is focused, and delves in to a greaterdeptharound the subject matter at hand.
There will in like mannerbe a greater amount of research involved. Professors will often include research-type papers and individual or team research projects in their course syllabi. Students will need to be prepared to commencetheir ideas fully, and to defend and prove their hypotheses with valid and germane(predicate)statistical data.
Finally, there will be major differences of flavoramong leading professors in major fields. While at Booth, I recall two well-known and highly regarded economics professors who had the aimopposite opinion on the same subject, and showed research to cover songup their claims.
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3. The way students interact: As suggested earlier, in graduate student you will largely be on your own. conflictingyour undergraduate experience, where you are regularly reminded of deadlines, often given extensions, and keepfaculty and staff reaching out to you, it is more or less the opposite in grad school.
You will not generally be reminded of deadlines that are readily provided on the Web, or in a course syllabus. Do not reckonan extension unless it is for a genuine emergency.
While resources are readily addressablein a variety of areas – academic advising, counseling, health advice, and student activities, to name a few – it is up to you to ask for help and to participate. No one is going to come after you, or keep encouraging you to do so.
Blogger and professor Dave G. Mumby writes on his communicate"My Graduate School" that graduate students are more visible, unlike many undergraduates who rarely have significant contact with any of their professors. Mumby writes that professors and confederatestudents will get to know you rather well, and will develop opinions about your values, interpersonal skills, emotional health and character.
In my experience, that's why self-madegraduate students tend to be good communicators, flexible, reasonable and talk overmost interpersonal and social interactions well.
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Materials taken from US News
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