When to start applying to grad school
Grad School Application Overview, Timeline, and Tips!
hey guys what's up welcome back to my
channel so today I wanted to do a video
kind of going through some of my grad
school application tips and kind of like
a rough timeline of when you should be
doing things if you want to apply so I
pretty much just finished the whole
application process it's currently
January and my applications were due at
December 1st and I am applying it to
developmental psychology neuroscience
PhDs and I know that the application
process is going to be a little bit
different for everyone you know
depending if you're doing masters PhD if
you're in the United States or not if
you're in a stem program or not when
your application deadline is all of that
but I'm going to be telling you just my
personal experience and some of the
things that I wish that I knew when I
was starting the application process
because it is quite a process and I'm
currently at the stage where I'm
starting to hear back from some schools
and then flying out to schools to
interview and stuff like that
so I'll keep you updated on that but as
of right now it's still a little bit
early I haven't heard back from any
places yet but this video is just going
to be about the application itself which
I am done with thank goodness so one of
my first pieces of advice is to know why
you want to go to grad school there's no
point in going to grad school if you
don't really want to do it because it's
a lot of your life if you're getting a
master's it'll probably be one to three
years and if you're getting a PhD more
like five to seven and it can be very
expensive so when you get to the point
where you want to apply to graduate
school know that you really want to do
it and know you know what your future
career goals are and that a masters or
PhD is going to be critical for that
career so something to know ahead of
time is that grad school applications
are quite expensive the GRE itself is
two hundred and five dollars I believe
and then sending each GRE score is an
additional twenty seven dollars for each
school and you might have to take the
GRE more than once and then submitting
your applications to graduate schools is
usually I would say between about sixty
and $110 for each school so all of these
things can add up really quickly so just
know that ahead of time and make sure
that you are financially ready to even
do the application process now it's also
super important to just start early and
I can't stress this enough want to start
researching the programs and schools I
would say at least May or June the year
before you apply so again my application
deadlines were December 1st give or take
a few days but I started researching
schools basically as soon as school got
out in May the year before also some
background information if you guys are
unfamiliar with my channel I am
currently a senior undergrad and I plan
to go to graduate school right from
undergrad that's another thing to think
about do you want to go to graduate
school immediately after undergrad or do
you want to wait a few years take a gap
year take a gap five years
lots of people come back to graduate
school much later after they've been
working for a bit and there was no right
or wrong answer to that that's very
dependent on you anyway yes okay start
early I had no idea how to start
researching programs honestly I was like
do I do a Google search of like
neuroscience PhD programs I had no idea
and in the beginning I was pretty set on
going into either cognitive or
behavioral neuroscience that I thought
was for sure what I wanted to do but now
I've actually switched my focus and I've
been applying more to developmental
psychology programs with like a
neuroscience focus and how I found that
out was basically I you know was
researching programs you know cutting of
neuroscience programs and stuff and
looking at the faculty in that program
because what's different about grad
school than undergrad is in grad school
you're really wanting to match with a
faculty and that faculty will be your
adviser for the entire duration that you
are there unless they leave or something
they're really looking to match with
that person and I noticed in cognero
programs and stuff I just really wasn't
as interested in what the faculty were
doing then the faculty who were in
development
and then I realize oh yeah wait ok
developmental psychology has what I want
anyway I am this video is just gonna be
me getting way off topic and then trying
to come back I apologize I just get
excited yes basically in the beginning I
did start by just doing Google searches
and sitting there in my laptop
researching programs and you know seeing
what the top schools are in different
areas I would also recommend a site
called the grad cafe it's a little bit
dangerous because it also like people
post their results and stuff on there
and sometimes make me feel a little bit
sad that other people have heard back
from a school that I haven't heard back
from but I think it would be useful to
look at that site when you're
researching programs in the beginning
because even now when I go on there and
I type in developmental psychology or
something it comes up with a lot of
schools and like oh I didn't even look
at that school or I didn't even know
that school existed and oh now that I
look at it maybe I should have applied
there so make sure you do so much
research in the beginning and then kind
of once you have your programs and
faculty narrowed down you want to start
contacting faculty actually that will be
more when the new school year starts so
I started contacting faculty
mid-september and I just send them an
email basically I crafted all of these
emails and word took a long time again
this whole process takes a long time now
I would say something like hey I'm
so-and-so from so-and-so University and
I'm really interested in your research
and then I would mention something
specific like oh I see you work with
this and this and I do this and think I
would be a good fit for your program
because of this and then at the end of
the email I would ask are you taking new
students for the next you know whenever
you're applying for and sometimes they
might reply oh no I'm not taking
students sorry but then at least you
know oh okay then maybe I won't even
bother applying to that school because
maybe we're only interested in that
particular faculty member and you also
want to make a really good impression on
them in the beginning and show them that
you are very interested in what they do
and show that you would be a really
strong candidate and would fit well in
their lab and also in this process I had
several Skype and phone call interviews
with these professors that I reached out
to and then they know you from the
beginning so I think that that increases
your chances that you might get admitted
to the University later on because they
can tell the admissions committee oh I
talked to this person and they're really
good and I want them in my lab so you
should invite them out so yes make sure
that you contact these faculty
beforehand I know it can be intimidating
but they're getting lots of these emails
that's not unusual in fact it's very
common they're probably getting lots of
emails from different grad students and
stuff so you want to make sure that
yours stands out but also make sure this
email is concise don't go on and on and
on like I am right now keep it short and
sweet
and show that you're genuinely
interested so then again backing up a
little bit I think that the best time to
study for and take the GRE is over the
summer that's what I did I basically
spent all of June all of July studying
for the GRE I did like I'd say about
three hours a day and then I took it at
the end of July so that I would have
plenty of time if I needed to retake it
that worked out really well for me
because if I were to study during the
school year while I was taking all of my
classes I would have been very
overwhelmed so make sure you give
yourself lots of time at least two to
three months because if you want to
retake it you have to wait at least
three weeks they say it can take six to
eight weeks for your GRE scores to be
sent to the university that you told
them to send it to so make sure that you
have that six to eight week buffer
before your deadline also if you guys
want to use the goose GRE online study
thing I did a video of that a while back
I'll link it if I remember but they did
give me a 20% off code for Mugu SH I'm
not being sponsored to say this they
didn't pay me anything I wish they did
that would have been great but they gave
me the code Zoey 20 so if you want to
use that code you can get to 20% off any
of their plans so yeah okay letters of
recommendation are another really big
part of your application
most places want three and some schools
that I applied to had some specific
things that they wanted from those
record
there's like one school said that they
wanted two of them to be people you had
as a professor so this means it can't
just be someone you did research with or
someone you work for something like that
they wanted them to be people who know
your academic strengths so keep that in
mind and think about who you want your
recommenders to be and make sure that
you give them enough time to write your
recommendations and that means I would
say at least two months so make sure
that you ask someone who knows you well
and can really talk about your strengths
and make sure that the three people you
choose kind of give you a holistic
well-rounded view of you other parts of
your application include your CV and
your personal statement your CV is
basically a resume but includes
everything you've done it has no page
limit you can list everything on there
you can write paragraphs
well maybe not paragraphs maybe small
paragraphs but your CV is really where
you highlight everything you do and all
but one of my programs asked for a CV
actually most of them asked for CV slash
resume and in that case we'll give them
a CV because you're giving them more
information in the CV whereas if you
give them a resume they're only seeing
like two pages of you as for the
personal statement start early on this
too I wish I started earlier but I
didn't I would say start this like three
months in advance before your
application deadline you're going to
have to write a different personal
statement or statement of purpose or
different places call it different
things but you're gonna have to write a
different one for every single school
and you can kind of use a template for
it because you'll be saying some of the
same stuff like past research experience
and stuff that you have but you're going
to have to tailor it towards each school
in each program and say why the
background you have in your goals align
with that program and with the specific
faculty members at that program so again
it's going to require a lot of research
on your part of figuring out what
exactly they do and really knowing your
stuff and then outlining all of that in
a well-written concise format other
things that schools sometimes ask for
are a
writing sample so this should be
something that you've you know written
for a previous class that really
demonstrates that you are a good writer
so I would pick some kind of research
paper or something that's what I did and
I just kind of read it over a little bit
it corrected a few typos that I had made
sure it was written well because again
it is your writing samples so you want
it to be really well-written so just
keep that in mind if you have previous
papers from classes maybe bring them out
of the deep dark hole of all your school
work polish it up a little bit and then
you can turn that in some schools also
ask for a diversity statement I had to
write a few of these basically just how
diversity which is it's a broad term
it's not just like racial diversity or
whatever but diverse experiences and
backgrounds and cultural considerations
and things like that tie in to how you
would contribute to diversity in their
program and basically just kind of what
makes you unique and what sets you apart
from the other applicants and that would
be in addition to your personal
statement so yeah there's a lot of
application materials a lot of things to
write you'll also have to send in your
transcripts so again make sure you allow
time for that so with all of this stuff
that you're gonna have to submit it gets
really confusing so my other tip would
be to be organized when I started
narrowing down schools I would you know
go through their application materials
whatever place on their website and
write down everything that they asked
for something okay they want a CV they
want transcript they want the personal
statement here's their instructions for
the personal statement follow that read
all of the instructions make sure you do
things right you don't want them to
immediately throw out your application
because you didn't follow something that
they said to do on the website I
personally made a checklist in Word like
a table and that was like a lifesaver
for me basically I had different columns
I had the school name the program the
application fee and the deadlines I had
a checkbox for when the GRE scores were
submitted and then I also had checkboxes
for when each of my recommenders four
letters of recommendation submitted
there
I had listed what faculty I wanted to
work with there I had other checkboxes
for transcripts personal statement CV
writing sample and diversity statement
and because not every single school
wanted every single one of these some of
the boxes I just grayed out if they
didn't want it that allowed me to go
through and check everything off and
make sure it had all of my application
materials in so I would highly recommend
it doing something like that just to
keep you on top of things and make sure
you don't forget anything and my last
tip is just to submit early don't wait
until the day of the application
deadline you want to give yourself at
least a few days in case something goes
wrong
know what if you tried to submit and it
doesn't load or it says oh we don't have
your GRE scores or oh your transcript
didn't come up or something you never
know but you don't want something stupid
to happen and then you're not able to
apply to that school or something so
like mine even though most application
deadlines were December 1st I think I
submitted all of my applications
November 29th just to have them done and
out of the way and then that was like a
huge weight lifted off of my shoulders
so yeah anyway I think that's it that I
have for this video I probably forgot
some stuff even though I feel like I
just rambled on for the last like 20
minutes if I think of some other things
that I didn't include here I'll write
them in the comments also if you guys
have questions leave them in the
comments below and thank you guys so
much for watching if you are getting
ready to start some grad school
applications good luck to you have a
wonderful day and I'll see you guys next
time bye
you
