graduate admission essay

While there are valid reasons for enrolling into graduate school, the wrong reasons for taking up a graduate degree are plentiful. Some may actually sound noble and genuine. However, without involving the feeling of engagement or the need to meet your career goals, they may just be questionable motivations.

Job discontent

Find out what is wrong with your present career before jumping into the graduate school wagon. You may end up caught in a cycle if you do not study your options carefully. Remember that graduate school requires a lot of work to be sustained for years. If you make a rushed decision, you may end up with a graduate school degree but still with a job you hate.

Prolonged unemployment

Getting relevant job experience, and not taking up further education, may be the answer to your problem. Even if you have a master’s or a doctorate degree, having a limited work experience can still set you back. You may have used up valuable time that could have used for your career and getting relevant work experience.

The student outlook

Loving the student experience may not necessarily mean that you will do well in the academe. You will still graduate and have to go to work one day. This motivation will only work if you plan to have an academic career such as teaching and concentrating on research work for your chosen field.

Peer pressure

Just because your best friend decided that he or she is going to graduate school does not mean you have to. Not everyone is suited for graduate work. Also, some people, including your friends, may not be truly interested in the resulting career after getting the advanced degree.

Parental decision

If your parents have been making your decisions for you, it is time to say “no.” This is about your future career. If graduate school does not figure in your future plans, do not enroll. After all, it is you, not your parents, who will be facing the challenges of graduate school for the next two or three years.

The promise of big bucks

Money should never be the main reason for enrolling into a graduate program. In fact, when you enroll into graduate school, you have to spend thousands of dollars more after college. After graduating, getting back that money spent in graduate school quickly is not even a guarantee. As with any degree, even with a bachelor’s degree, your salary depends on the quality of your work as well. So, you have to really love your field.

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When things get tough in graduate school, a well-formed study group is a big help. The operative word is “well formed.” A badly organized study group will have little or no effect at all in your academic performance and the success of your group. Why are study groups so important, anyway? The promise of sharing and combining energies will provide a better way to learn. The teamwork will prepare you for future jobs, and the support group system gets you through graduate school.

Downsizing

As much as sharing and networking are important, chaos is the result of over-sized study groups. So, you should keep the numbers manageable. Also, you may sometimes ask your team members to tell you if they can’t make it a particular study session so that you can anticipate task reassignments.

Saying no to slackers

Study groups are for sharing and learning together. Having unproductive members defeats the purpose of putting ideas together. A study group cannot be a tutorial group for some people who are just there to listen and absorb what others are sharing. So, do your homework and come to the study group already prepared.

The question of leadership

For proper management, a leader must be assigned to oversee group study meetings. The leader can be an appointed president, or you can all take turns to be the leader of the study group.

Scheduling the meetings

Every member must benefit from the study group. So, if you are the assigned leader, make sure that meetings will be set at a schedule when everyone is free. Though the occasional absence cannot be completely eliminated, try to motivate your members to come in most of your meetings so that you get the most out of your study sessions.

Preparing an agenda

Even with the most willing of members, a meeting can end up chaotic if there is no prepared agenda. Prepare the topics you have to discuss instead of wasting meeting time with arguing about what topics to discuss.

Forming a group

If nobody has invited you to a study group yet, you can form your own. Do not wait for that invite; there are also others waiting for one. You can invite those who are not yet members of a study group.

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Though a graduate school admission interview is not the main basis for the final decision for being accepted, conducting yourself properly during the interview is still important. Some universities do not even conduct graduate admissions interviews. However, you can decide to request one if you want to get to know the school better. Whatever the purpose, you must present yourself well to what may be your second home in the next two or three years of your life. Your interview may be a confirmation of your claims in your graduate admission essay.

Before the interview

* If you have not been formally interviewed yet, read books on how you should present yourself.
You can visit the university’s website, or you can visit the university itself through a requested campus tour. This way, you get to know what to expect from the graduate school. Also, taking the initiative to know important information about the school says something about your determination to be accepted.
* Know more about the degree you want to enroll into, and your possible instructors. You can find out about the faculty through an informal interview with current students or through reading their published articles.
* Stage mock interviews with family or friends so can practice your verbal skills. Ask for feedback from your friends including answers that were unclear and unneccessary expressions that you exhibited.
* Read your graduate school admission essay and find points that may be touched on during the interview.

During the meeting

* Dress neatly and appropriately.
* Do not smoke or drink alcohol right before your interview. These can be detected by the interviewer especially if you will be seating near him or her.
* For interviews in social settings, drink little or not at all.
* Follow the rules of interviewing well. These include maintaining eye contact and displaying well-balanced self-confidence.
* Make sure you discuss your compatibility with the school’s program.
* Ask relevant questions that show your interest in the program.
* Make sure what you say is consistent with what is written in your graduate admission essay.

After the interview

* Immediately send follow-up thank you letters (or even emails), showing your appreciation for the interviewer’s time.
* Politely ask for an update on the status of your application after a week or so.

Graduate-school specifics

* Come to the interview early so that you can have time to assess different programs and universities.
* Find out the situation of present graduate students in your targeted field of study.
* Make sure you know how to justify your interest in your targeted field of study if your college degree is completely unrelated.

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Honor societies are not formed to establish social status, but they are formed to celebrate the achievements and enrich the academic lives of its members. Though such societies may have Greek names, they are not equivalent to a fraternity or a sorority. An honor society’s goals go beyond partying and other social activities. Here are a few privileges enjoyed by members of honor societies.

Sense of accomplishment

Being merely invited to an honor society confirms your status as an achiever. So, you feel a sense of accomplishment when you are confirmed as an honor society member. It is a recognition of your past achievements and an opportunity to continue on the same stance.

Resume add-on

Being a member of an honor society helps you improve the weight of your resume. This is especially true if you have just graduated and are still planning to get a good-paying job. Though an honor society provides the additional benefit of not being involved in many time-consuming activities, you must still show some effort in contributing to the group. If not, the resume inclusion is quite empty and superficial.

Added educational information

Honor societies provide their members helpful information regarding the members’ majors. The members are able to make the most of their chosen degrees and of their possible careers after graduation. The interaction among members of the honor society lets one see the many options available to him or her after obtaining that graduate diploma.

Publication

Because honor societies aim to make people interested in different degrees, school papers per department are published. This is to psyche students up about their career choice or to encourage prospective students. Usually, these department ask for the help of honor societies in their publications. Thus, honor society members are able to hone their craft as writers for these publications.

Career advancement

Career and degree advisement provide society members with proper training in professionalism and ethics. This will help them do well after graduation through being able to shift comfortably from school to the working arena.

Networking

Membership in honor societies do not only link students within the same university. The students are also linked through a national network of colleagues. Not only are the members able to participate in their school’s learning community, but they also interact within a wider region as well.

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Though the academe is not as tough as the corporate environment, it still suffers from office politics. Because the need for promotion exists in any average working place, power struggles among co-workers and colleagues can still occur; power struggles are also evident even in school. There will be alliances and even pure non-job related antagonism between two or more people. Sometimes, this happens when people are constantly working closely. These rifts, however, can be prevented. Here are a few things to keep in mind to stay away from office politics in the academe.

Being transparent

Office politics in the academe can produce a certain degree of dishonesty in people. Co-employees with hidden agendas may give you their best smiles, but are actually badmouthing you to the dean or the principal. To avoid this, do not join them in their fun. Instead, show your real self. Even if others have hidden agendas, do not harbor one.

Showing flexibility

Like in any other setting, you will be dealing with people who have strong opinions and personalities. You may even be someone who is quite opinionated yourself. However, dealing with different kinds of people will require you to broaden your point of view so that you see others’ perspectives as well. Flexibility will also enable you to bond with everyone, not just with your own clique.

Demonstrating tongue discipline

Gossip will never result in anything positive; in fact it is counterproductive. Though people may talk ill about you, respond by telling only the truth. Playing against your enemies at their own game makes you as bad as they are. While gossip from others may taint your reputation on the surface, gossip from you will truly ruin your being. When you gossip, you are perceived as someone who can never be trusted.

Taming the ego

Sometimes a high sense of self can mean trouble. If competition for a promotion becomes too intense, learn to keep your humility. Self-promotion can be subtly done by doing your job well. If, for example, the promotion went to somebody else, congratulate him or her. This way, you are perceived as someone who is not only humble but is secure and confident about your capabilities.

Working on credibility

Even if gossip is continuously aimed at you, a strongly built credibility will protect your reputation. You can be credible by combining transparency with consistently good outputs. Through credibility, you gain trust and, in time, respect.

Doing your job

You are in the academe to teach, to do research, or to study. Do your thing. You do not have to resort to office politics to gain a promotion or get a good score or evaluation. Being conscientious with your job will get you there.

Make peace

Do not harbor grudges. Instead of gossiping, calmly and directly approach your detractor. Explain that you do not want to play the game of office politics, and that you will not respond in a similar manner. Make sure that you do this without a hint of arrogance.

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Popular American universities prove their reputation by ranking high in the graduate divisions of humanities and literature. Humanities and literature programs from three Ivy league schools have made it to the top five. Berkeley tops the humanities list in 2008, while Harvard comes in second. However, in the general English department, Harvard is on top while Berkeley is second. The three other universities in the top five have also reshuffled their rankings. So, the following list is in no particular order:

Harvard University

Harvard offers unique humanities programs, including a specific take on the Classics. The humanities sector also provides focus on several cultures, not only providing degrees on European literature, but also providing studies in East Asian, Near Eastern, Tibetan and Himalayan culture and literature. You can also take up a modern area by pursuing a degree in film studies instead, or you can also explore prose and poetry by taking a graduate degree in comparative literature.

University of California – Berkeley

Berkeley’s humanities graduate degrees include broad ones, such as Art degrees. It also offers the Classics, somewhat similar to what Harvard offers. UC-Berkeley offers a wide range of degrees in terms of modernity. For example, notice the contrast of a History of Art degree and an Urban Design degree. The university also offers several language programs, including Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Slavic languages.

Stanford University

Proud of its achievements in world rankings of academic programs, Stanford continues to provide quality graduate education. The departments of core humanities, fine arts, and languages and literature are included in the school of humanities and science. Stanford’s humanities departments include Drama, English, History, and Divisions of Literatures, Cultures and Languages.

Yale University

Yale’s graduate students have an opportunity to participate in the institution’s non-degree programs as well. The university’s humanities and literature degrees include in-depth studies of cultures, such as in African Studies and East Asian studies. It also combines language and literature studies, as is evident in degrees such as Italian Language and Literature, or Slavic Languages and Literature.

Princeton University

Princeton aims to provide its students ample knowledge at a short period of time. So that focus and attention can be given for each student, classes have a limited number of students. Though its humanities and literature graduate programs do not include theology, its graduate programs include near eastern studies.

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Stress is part of life; so people should be capable of coping with stress brought about by the demands of school, work, and personal matters. After all, graduate students are generally high achievers. If you are in graduate school, you probably have a love and deep appreciation for learning. However, even if you do love learning and had straight As through college, graduate school may be tougher. It also becomes tougher if you have a very high expectation of what you can do or should do.

Employ time management strategies

Stress can truly pull you down if you do not know how to manage your time. You have probably noticed that most pieces of advice related to stress deal with time and managing it properly. Here are some of them:

* Do not procrastinate – If it takes you too long to do coursework, you will end up with less time in your hands.

* Set priorities – You have to prioritize work with impending deadlines, rather than those that can wait for longer. Set a timetable so that you will not neglect anything.

* No cramming, please – If you cram, you will end up stressed and unable to do quality work.

* Say NO – If you put in too many things to do in your calendar, you may suffer a burnout.

Exercise

While doing exercise may seem like a time-consuming task, it is actually a very effective stress-reducer. It makes your body fitter to withstand different stress-causing factors. So, take some time off, at least for an hour three times a week, to exercise.

Do not make all-nighters habitual

Though staying up all night does provide you with more time to study, you may end up becoming unproductive and unfocused during your classes because your body and mind feel tired. You need your sleep to think and function better.

Do not skip meals

Going to graduate school does not mean you have to forgo healthy eating habits because you no longer have the time to prepare healthy dishes. Remember that eating nutritious foods will keep you going. Skipping a meal never does anyone good, even if that person is on a diet. Skipping meals actually slows down your metabolism, making you store fat more quickly. As a graduate student, you need food to keep your body health and strong.

Self-analyze

Keep a journal where you can record how you are doing in graduate school so far. You may find something that will need attention or improvement.

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The best social sciences programs in the United States are offered by top-ranked universities. These universities include some that belong to the Ivy League, such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The top five universities per specific social sciences vary, but some are fairly consistent with all their programs. These universities are the ones that made the list of universities offering the five best social sciences programs.

University of California – Berkeley

UC-Berkeley’s social sciences programs have proven themselves to be competitive. The university is able to reach the top five for each program, creating for itself a strong overall social sciences department. Even the institution’s other graduate programs have consistently made it to the top ten of best lists. It prides itself for its community of culturally diverse students.

Yale University

Yale offers doctoral degrees for its social sciences programs. The graduate division of this Ivy League school provides more-than-adequate information to its prospective students regarding its graduate academic programs, the faculty, and specializations. This is to show these interested individuals about what life is really like when pursuing higher education, especially at Yale.

Stanford University

Stanford University has six social sciences departments. These are anthropology, communication, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology. The social sciences department belongs to the largest Stanford school, the school of Humanities and Sciences. This school includes both social and natural sciences. Stanford University has one of the best social sciences graduate programs in the country. Its faculty members come up with significant research in various academic journals.

Harvard University

Harvard’s social sciences department belongs to a large school, the School of Arts and Sciences. Like Stanford, the school includes humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Harvard offers non-degree status to graduate students. This includes the Visiting Fellow status for students who only need to finish their dissertation at Harvard because they have finished their course work at other universities.

Princeton University

Princeton offers a great environment for graduate studies, plus it promotes a healthy professor-student relationship for better learning. The Ivy League school also provides financial support for deserving students who cannot afford the tuition. Princeton offers interdepartmental and joint degrees for students who have many interests.

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In the United States’ 2008 rankings, there are five universities with over-all excellent performances, which are hailed as having the best offerings of engineering and sciences graduate programs. So, for those who want to pursue a graduate degree in engineering or in any other related sciences, the following universities may be just for you.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

MIT has consistently proven itself as an institution that offers one of the best engineering courses. It has also been known to offer other competitive degrees in the sciences. There are many specialized degrees in the sciences that one can take up from this institution, and its students are mentored by top scientists and engineers in the world today. If you want a university with a proven track record in engineering, a budding sciences department, and over a century of experience, MIT is for you.

Stanford University

Stanford University offers one of the best Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering programs in the country. Its 2006-2007 enrollment showed a very strong graduate school enrollment; the number of graduate students exceeded the number of undergraduates. Its graduate academic programs are known as one of the most competitive in the world today.

University of California – Berkeley

UC Berkeley places a strong emphasis on innovation, and prides itself with its internationally recognized faculty. Early UC Berkeley alumni provided the microelectronics to Silicon Valley and was part of the structuring of Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. It boasts of seven topnotch engineering departments.

Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Tech’s 2007 enrollment saw 3,559 graduate students into its engineering department. Its students are not only highly competent, they are also active in Greek organizations and sports conferences. So, you can be rest assured that there is room for holistic development.

University of Illinois (Urbana – Champaign)

In 2007, the University of Illinois’ engineering graduate program ranked fifth in the nation. Among its individual engineering and science programs, the program Physics with a focus on Condensed Matter ranked the highest at number one. The University of Illinois’ civil engineering graduate degree is also a top ranker.  There is no program ranked below 20. Its lowest ranked degree, Industrial/Manufacturing, is at number 16.

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The path to achieving a doctorate degree, or PhD, may be filled with long hours doing paperwork and research inside dusty libraries, the confines of your own home, or in actual field scenarios. A PhD will also require several years of formal studies. Getting that PhD diploma may be tough, but for the true academic, the rewards are all worth it.

Career advancement

When you get a PhD, you will be offered many jobs in relation to your field. If you are already working, expect a promotion as soon as you get your doctorate degree. You will also be getting more prestigious offers from outside your present workplace.

Increased earnings

With the higher position comes the higher earnings. During your PhD studies, you are slowly building up your earning potential. After years of study, you will now feel the impact through a more bulky salary.

Higher learning

For passionate academicians, learning in itself is enough reward for their efforts. If you are the sort to truly care about discoveries in relation to your field, whether it is in the arts and humanities or in the pure and applied sciences, you are bound to be thrilled and excited with your daily academic pursuits. Also, your PhD gives you the credentials and respectability that will enable you to request for funding in order to conduct further research. You may be psyched to delve deeper into areas that few people have studied, whether it entails exploring the world through expeditions or poring through fragile texts of poetry.

The outlook and lifestyle

You do have to possess a certain disposition to be able to benefit fully from a PhD. If you are a serious learner, you will immediately fit into the world of graduate studies. You must have most of the following traits for you to make the most of studying for that doctorate degree:

- highly literate
- a self-starter and an independent worker
- persistent
- industrious and conscientious
- practical and tight with budget
- capable of enjoying intellectual activities
- have a love for learning and discovery
- willing to give up parties

If you have most, if not all, of the above traits, merely getting your PhD is a benefit.

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