Rules for grad school

I was having coffee this morning with a friend who’s in a grad program for epidemiology, and I was reminded of some online grad school advice. I’ve done the first step and got my master’s degree six years ago. But if you’re considering grad school – especially if you’re looking at the PhD track – then you’ll definitely want to head over to orgtheory.net for this compendium of posts with salient advice for the aspiring grad student. Lots of goodness to be had within.

It helps to have some strategies in hand for managing the flood of work you’re in for. And above all I hope you find what you like in grad school. Depending what field you’re applying for, Dec 31 can be an important deadline for grad school applications. If you’re in the process, good luck!

I still remember the process of writing my grad school application. It was an old school form that you could either fill in by hand or type. I didn’t have a typewriter, but I knew someone who did. So I headed over and proceeded to type my application. It was an old school form on an old school typewriter that didn’t have a correction strip. I only had one copy of the form, and I was butting up against the deadline. It had to be perfect the first time out. I’m a good typist, and I write a lot so writing my application essays in my head turned out to be a good strategy. It was probably the best application I’ve filled out for anything. And it got me in. Of course, writing good essays is only the first step to the world of grad school. I would do a lot more writing over the following two years, and I loved every minute of it.