A Timeline: Applying to Graduate School in the Arts and Sciences
The timeline and documents below describe the application process. While this timeline allows for exploration and preparation throughout your undergraduate years, these steps may begin in your senior year or following graduation.
First, Sophomore and Junior Years
- Read, observe, and listen. Take advantage of conversations, lectures, and panels in which advisors, faculty members, alumnae, and others describe their experiences. Talk with faculty and ask for advice concerning graduate school. Specifically ask about graduate school preparation, researching and choosing schools, testing and admissions procedures, and financial aid.
- Try to take more than one course with a member of the faculty in your field of interest. Graduate schools are particularly interested in a student’s academic development and the more a faculty member knows about your work, the more complex and detailed his/her evaluation of you is likely to be.
- Do not wait until your senior year to request letters of recommendation. If you have excelled in a course, request a letter of recommendation from that professor and have it sent to your file at the CWS.
- Look for opportunities to do research in your field of interest either as part of your course work or as term or summer work.
- The CWS offers meetings every fall and spring to review graduate school and fellowship information.
Spring/Summer Prior to Senior (or Application) Year
- Attend Graduate School/Fellowships meeting.
- Research programs. Use directories in the Center for Work and Service or other libraries to research potential graduate school programs. We recommend you read: Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States, Educational Ranking Annual, and Peterson’s Guide to Professional/Graduate Programs which are among the most detailed. Visit graduate school and financial aid web sites.
- Discuss graduate programs of interest with faculty advisor(s).
- Determine guidelines for the application essay or personal statement in your proposed field of study. Draft a personal statement and begin to revise and rewrite with the assistance of faculty advisors.
- Find out which standardized tests you will be required to take. Research availability and registration processes. The GRE General Exam is now computerized, although the subject exams are still administered by pencil and paper (see the ETS web site for more information: www.ets.org). The registration deadline is usually more than six weeks in advance. Review test material using a guide book (e.g., Princeton Review, Barron’s, etc.) and/or attend test preparation classes offered on- or off-campus. Financial aid for these programs is available.
Fall of Application Year
- Register for and take the required standardized tests. GRE scores are accepted by graduate schools for up to five years. Many students feel more confident taking the test while they are still in college if they can prepare adequately, even if they do not plan to apply to graduate school at that time. Others, however, wait until their year of application.
September of Application Year
- Attend Center for Work and Service meetings and workshops on graduate fellowships, researching graduate programs, and applying to graduate school, as well as the information sessions presented by graduate schools that visit campus.
- Request application materials from graduate programs you are considering.
- Ask your professors to write or update letters of recommendation. Give them material describing the programs to which you are applying and a draft of your personal statement. Ask for their advice in strengthening your essay.
- Establish a reference file at the Center for Work and Service. This is a clearinghouse for all academic and work-related references throughout your lifetime.
- Investigate financial aid resources for graduate school in the Center for Work and Service Library and on the Internet. Be aware that most graduate programs make financial awards based on merit as well as financial need, so it is important to complete this part of the application process even if you believe you might not be eligible to receive financial aid.
November
- Order academic transcripts from the Registrar’s Office. (Find out if first semester grades will be recorded in time to meet school deadlines.)
- Request that letters of recommendation be sent to graduate programs. Provide the CWS References Assistant with school forms and envelopes, properly addressed.
December
- Complete applications.
December/January
- Plan to mail your applications early!
February
- Consider visiting the graduate/professional schools to which you have been admitted.
April
- Some financial aid programs may require that you file a copy of your federal income tax return.