Dave Mumby - Graduate School: Winning Strategies For Getting In

Winning Strategies For Getting In, 2nd edition

By Dave G. Mumby, Ph.D.

Published by Proto Press Publications atSmashwords
Copyright 2012 Proto Press Publications.
All rights reserved

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The publisher and author are not responsible for anyloss occurring to any persons acting or refraining from action as aresult of any advice provided in this eBook.

CHAPTER 1.

CHAPTER 2.

CHAPTER 3.

CHAPTER 4.

CHAPTER 5.

CHAPTER 6.

CHAPTER 7.

CHAPTER 8.

CHAPTER 9.

CHAPTER 10.

CHAPTER 11.

Introduction

Societies of today are complex and dynamic,and the roles played by different individuals are becoming more andmore varied all the time. The variety of possible occupations orcareer paths that someone could potentially pursue is absolutelyhuge.

Yet, these are not good times for most youngpeople in much of the developed world. Many nations are strugglingwith devastatingly high unemployment levels, economies that aresluggish or even shrinking, and with bleak prospects forsignificant improvements any time soon. There are too many people,and not enough opportunities for employment and career success togo around. To be competitive in the job market, a person needs anedge.

A college education and some relevantexperience considerably improve the odds of landing a decent job. Acollege degree is not enough, however, if a person wants to pursuesome of the more interesting or rewarding careers that are outthere for talented experts who have advanced training inspecialized domains. Many of those careers are available only topeople who have gone on to graduate school after college peoplewho have obtained a masters or a doctorate degree.

The rub is that there are not enough placesin graduate programs for all the students who would like to beenrolled in one, and most applicants to graduate school fail to getin. To be competitive in the graduate-school market, a person needsan edge.

The purpose of this book is to giveundergraduate college and university students an edge, by showingthem how to prepare for and apply successfully to graduate school.That edge shall have several facets. Readers will gain a specialawareness of what graduate programs and graduate supervisors arereally looking for in applicants. This will requiredispelling some widely held misconceptions about what matters andwhat does not when it comes to getting into graduate school. Alongthe way, readers will learn everything they need to know about theprocess of applying to graduate school, and how to make the most ofeach component of their own applications. Common mistakes thatoften undermine the quality of an application will be identified,so the reader will learn not only what to do, but also what toavoid doing. Some mistakes are made during the first couple ofyears of college, so the sooner students read this book, the morethey will get out of it.

New In This Edition

This is the second edition of GraduateSchool: Winning Strategies For Getting In the first editionwas published way back in 1997. A lot has changed in the pastdecade and a half, and this update is certainly overdue. Sharp-eyedlibrarians or career counselors might even notice that the subtitlehas changed, slightly. The first edition was subtitled, WinningStrategies For Getting In With or Without Excellent Grades.So, whats up with that? Why drop the With or Without ExcellentGrades part? That was done to eliminate an annoying misperceptionthat cropped up a few times: The part about grades had some peopleassuming the aim was to help weak students fake their way intograduate school. Not many people assumed this, but enough did sothat seemed like a good idea to truncate the subtitle. Of course,the point of the original subtitle was to emphasize that one doesnot need the very best college grades to get into graduate school,nor does having excellent grades guarantee that one will get intograduate school. The aim is not to help weak students find a wayinto graduate school, but rather to help capable students put theirbest foot forward when applying to graduate school. Mediocrestudents should not give more than a passing thought to graduateschool, because graduate school is not for everyone most peopleare much better off joining the workforce after college.

Back to whats new in this edition Theentire book has been extensively edited, each chapter rewritten andexpanded, and all the crucial messages that were conveyed in thefirst edition are now recast in a newer, more vibrant text. In just15 years, the details of how to deal with certain aspects of thegraduate-school application process have changed a great deal, dueto developments in how graduate schools utilize the Internet forpromotion and recruiting, providing program information, and foronline applications. In the mid-1990s, the telephone and regularmail still played big roles when it came to doing such things ascontacting graduate programs, acquiring and submitting applicationmaterials, or corresponding with potential graduate supervisors, toname just a few examples. Much of that has been replaced by prudentemail correspondence, or visits to graduate-program websites.Unlike the book that was published in the 1990s, this new editionis written for the 21st-century college student. No moremention of typewriter ribbons.

Much new material has been added, too,including expanded coverage of several key topics, plus somealtogether new ones. For example, instead of just a major sectionabout letters of recommendation, there is now an entire chapterdedicated to this critical component of a graduate-schoolapplication, and the discussion has been expanded in severaldirections. This edition has a more extensive discussion of thethings students should be doing in their first few years of collegein order to get effective and relevant letters of recommendationwhen it comes time to apply to graduate school. A new sectiondescribes the student-evaluation forms that referees typically haveto fill out along with the letters they write. These additions weremade with the hope that students who have a good understanding ofthe dimensions on which they will be evaluated should find iteasier to decide whom to ask for a reference. This insight shouldalso help some students realize that they need to do more than theycurrently are doing if they want to set up an effective letter ofrecommendation for graduate school.

The previous edition was the first book toemphasize the importance of contacting prospective supervisorsprior to applying to graduate school, and it was also the first toexplain why choosing the right supervisor is more important thanchoosing the right school. In this edition, readers are shown howto avoid certain pitfalls when choosing a graduate supervisor, andwhen choosing which programs to apply to, and how to stay focusedon the most relevant factors.