How To Get Into Graduate School
Faced with a prolonged recession and a stagnant job market, more students are turning to graduate school to make themselves more marketable in the workplace, and to bide their time as they await an economic recovery. How can you increase your chances of admission in a climate that is more competitive than ever?
Establish an application theme
Make your application as memorable as possible. Avoid a stale, instantly forgettable list of accomplishments. Instead, establish an interesting theme that pervades your entire application. In particular, use your personal statement to amplify this theme and to convince an admissions officer that you’d be a fascinating member of the incoming class. For example, if you’re applying to medical school and want to demonstrate your commitment to health care, tailor your personal statement, letters of recommendation, and interview to highlight a lifetime desire to become a physician.
Before submitting your final application, ask someone to review it in under five minutes. If they can come away with a strong, memorable impression, you know you’ve done your best.
With standardized exams, focus on substantive study Most students mistakenly think that they can prepare for the LSAT, GRE, GMAT or MCAT in a just a few weeks. On the contrary, these exams require nonintensive, substantive study. If you’re in your mid-20s and planning to take the GRE or GMAT, it’s safe to assume that you remember close to nothing from high school algebra or geometry. And yet the quantitative portions of these exams present challenging, advanced level math questions. Give yourself several months to slowly review the concepts that you’ve forgotten, concepts that took you years to learn in the first place.
