While working on my many applications to graduate school, I wished I had found more personal experiences, advice and application essays on the Web. Having just started my second Masters and worked as staff and adjunct faculty at two universities, I decided to finally publish what I have learned about getting into graduate school.
To me it is an environmental decision whether or not to go to graduate school. You can learn most things in life without school, but if you like the learning environment graduate schools offer, go for it! Good luck!
Squeaking and Wriggling Into Graduate School
I have squeaked and wriggled my way into graduate school three times in the last seven years. I credit my charm and the wisdom of the program's applications committee. I have failed many more times - I blame my parents. After all, they birthed me on a campus, then raised me hippie - thus giving me a desire to be on campuses, but not the transcripts or skills to get past the gate keepers with their fancy Ivy League expectations for being able to spell, write, do math and things - like you know...smart stuff. I got terrible GRE scores under the 70th percentile after 3 tries and am the proud owner of a Bachelor's degree without distinction from Arizona State University.
OK, so I really don't blame my parents...anymore. They gave me a love of learning and a good mind by never putting any pressure on me to perform in school. I only had to graduate (in any major, within the century) from any four-year institution that was affordable. For me, school has mostly been fun and about what I wanted to learn.
I believe graduate school should be a joy for everyone. You may have hated school when you were a kid, or even during your undergraduate degree, but graduate school should be all about YOU and what you want to learn.
Below are my notes from an almost pathological pursuit of graduate schools from 1997 to 2006...and counting.
Lessons Learned
- Visit, visit, and visit. Actions speak louder than words and face time trumps email and paper. If one person on the admissions committee has met you and says they want you in, that pulls a lot of weight. Programs want people who will not flunk out, who will add to the program's good reputation, will enrich the student body, and are not high maintenance. When you visit make sure to hang out too. Check your email in the department's computer labs. Eat lunch nearby. Try to feel the vibe of the place and see if it fits your vibe.
- Write a statement of purpose from the heart. It's got to ring true and fit with your transcripts, resume, and other application materials. I think of statements of purpose as cheap therapy; a structure for you to really try and clear up what your purpose is. What is your purpose?! Explain who you are, what you want, and why you want it from where you are applying. Follow the department's directions to a tee. Rewrite, give drafts to your family, friends, people in the street, etc. Make it punchy, personal and free of TYPOS. Oh, and have a positive and direct lead sentence.
- Apply early. Programs get flooded with late applicants who are making sudden life changes. This can work, but it looks panicky and desperate.
- Pick an application tactic and stick with it. I think there are two main approaches to applying:
- The "I'm going" approach. This is good if you're hell bent on going to graduate school and starting soon. Apply to at least six places, and up to 20 places, and go to the one you like the best and where you get the best financial deal.
- The "Kamikaze Attack." If you're hell bent on the right school for you, visit schools and only apply to one's you know you want to go to - even if you apply to just one. But be prepared to have to try again the following year if you don't get in.
Apply to places where you want to live. No one told me this one. After you graduate, work will probably be easiest to find close to school because your professors, alumni, internships, and the school's reputation are concentrated there. It's a sweet life to stay around where you went to school because the networking is so smooth.
- Cost. Financial aid is totally different in graduate school. Generally you get enough loans to go where you get in. And some free, low interest, or work-study money depending on your need. Figure out how much per $1000 your loans will cost, it's usually something like $12 per month, per $1000. Keep your loans as low as you can, lest you prevent yourself from being able to work in jobs you may love, but don't pay much. The good news is that education loans have lots of options to lower your payments, such as income dependent and extended payment plans. I favor going to state schools with resident tuition, or paying through the nose if you find a program you just love and have some money saved, or get a scholarship. I've done both.
- Applying is rarely a mistake. At the very least, you'll have a statement of your purpose.
- Graduate school is rarely a mistake. At the very least you'll learn more about yourself and meet other people who like to learn.
Application Stories and Statement of Purposes
Educational Technology Masters Program, San Diego State University. Accepted 1997. Graduated 1999
While working as a Webmaster in San Francisco during the beginning of the Web, I found myself searching for a more educational-oriented technology environment. During a visit to San Diego I visited a friend who was going to San Diego State University's Educational Technology Masters program. She encouraged me to visit. I did and clicked with the program and professor I set a meeting up with. I'd taken the GREs on a whim after a couple weeks of study and got a 960 combined (terrible), but 950 was the minimum and there were a few months before the application deadline. I applied and was accepted and started that summer. I loved it and it was very, very cheap since I was a California resident. I was very pro-department and even got in some trouble for complaining too much about things I thought needed improvement. I ended up winning Outstanding Student of the Year and adjunct teaching for a year after. I was encouraged to go on for a PhD at the program, but it didn't feel right and I was burned out on San Diego. Mistake? Who knows? But the MA got me steady and fun work after the dot com crash when my friends were out of work.
> Download PDF of SDSU Statement of Purpose
Educational Technology PhD Program, NYU Steinhart School of Education, Accepted 2004, declined.
I found the program on the Web. It was small and at a well known school. During a trip back east I visited for an hour with the professor who was coming into power and things felt good. To my surprise I got in, which after many rejections was a great feeling. I visited for four days and stayed with friends while I sat in on classes, hung out on the floor, met a couple of the other PhD students, etc. To my horror it didn't feel right to me and financially New York City was an imposing thought for 5 years. I backed out, which was one of the hardest things I've ever done.
> Statement of Purpose (PDF) | Questions from Department (PDF).
ITP program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Accepted 2006, graduated 2008.
A friend who went to the famed MIT Media Lab encouraged me to visit NYU's ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) while I was in NYC. I scheduled a visit by myself. I loved it the moment I entered the floor. It was communal, immersive, experimental, project based, and had good light and wooden floors. There was even a wood shop and chipmaking shop. And they even had "humanizing technology" in their literature. Even better, they didn't take GRE's! I visited twice more, once during the end of year student work show, and once for an info session. I had a little money saved and decided to spend some on this program. I was single and had never lived in New York City. To my surprise, I got in. Two years later I was done, and it seemed like a blur of laptops and LEDs interspirsed with walking New York City streets with ideas spinning in my head.
Statement of Purpose Directions: "A Personal Statement that examines in approximately 1000 words (four pages, typed, double spaced) aspects of your character that distinguish you as an individual. Please address the following points:"
a) What is it about ITP that is interesting to you?
b) ITP is dedic ated to experimentation with new forms of communications and interaction.
What in your background, work, or interests will contribute to that work?
c) What would you most like to learn from the ITP community?"
> Download PDF of my NYU ITP Statement of Purpose.
Notes on Failures
UC Berkeley, 2004/2005.
God I love this school! I tried twice in the Journalism Masters, visited, and flirted with the SIMSs school. Great school. Heavy competition. Didn't click. Didn't get in.
Claremont Graduate School and University of San Diego, late 1990s/2003.
I messed around with applying to a PhD program here, but it was always panicky and during times when I was depressed. My former professors were patient, but I never got it together to fully apply. Looking back I was just flailing around and trying to get back to the safety of graduate school near where I went for my Masters.
Harvard. EdD in Educational Technology, 2004.
My boss at the time was an alumn. He let me write a recommendation that he edited and sent it. I didn't visit. It was more of a half-hearted stab in the dark.
MIT Media Lab, 2003
Visited. It was a very engineering/programing-focused place and it felt like a fortress in terms of getting in. It was a fantastic place, but I didn't have the chops or what they were looking for, and I didn't click with a professor.
Stanford Educational Technology PhD. Carnegie Melon University Human-Computer Interaction, 2001.
Visited. They were taking only 5 new students...from the entire world! Oy! It went well, but I felt a little under-qualified. CMU and Stanford were hard to get into and my low GRE's and math skills were not helpful, to say the least.
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