III. Preparing for Graduate School

If you are certain you want to go to graduate school, you will need to prepare in order to:

• be admitted to the program you want; and
• be successful after you are in.

How can I prepare for graduate school?
Why do I need an area of specialization before I apply?
How can I find an area of specialization?
How can I fine tune my focus?
How can I get the kind of experience I will need?
What kinds of graduate programs are available?
How can I narrow the list?
What are the campuses like?

A. Join the academic community

Professional organizations. All fields of study involve a national or even global community of scholars, who conduct research, teach, and publish. These people know each other and often meet at conventions and conferences. Professors can help their graduate students and their most promising undergraduate students become part of the community.

• Become a student member of your field’s professional organization(s).
• Read the organizations’ journal(s) regularly.
• Attend national and regional conferences.
• Ask your professor(s) to introduce you to others in the field.
• Author/co-author a conference presentation.
• Author/co-author an article for the organizations’ journal(s).

Honor societies. Academia has a number of general honor societies and many fields have their own honor societies, as well.

• Join and become an active member of an honor society.
• Serve as an officer in your honor society.
• Help your honor society actively contribute to your field.

Faculty. The faculty in your graduate field can not only teach you about your field, but also help you choose a graduate program and provide references for applications.

• Take smaller (upper division or even graduate-level) courses in your graduate field.
• Take a Directed Reading and Research course (399 or 499) with a faculty member.
• Participate actively in class.
• Take advantage of office hours to discuss your areas of interest and possible research topics.
• Ask their advice about graduate programs in your field.

Graduate Students. Graduate students who are currently in the programs you are considering can give you an insider’s perspective.

• Make a point of talking to graduate students in every program you are considering.
• Ask them what it took for them to get in and perhaps even for tips on applying and being admitted.
• Find out what their program is like and whether they like it.
• Talk to graduate students in UHM’s program.

B. Develop a focus in a specialty area (especially important for academic degrees)

Your identity as a graduate student and, therefore as an applicant, very much depends on your specialization, or area of focus.

At the graduate level, there is a high degree of specialization. For example:

• Not just Psychology or even Social Psychology, but how social cognitive theory applies to an understanding of minority relations.
  
  
• Not just Geology or even Geochemistry, but the use of stable isotope biogeochemistry to determine the cycling of chemicals in the ocean.
  
  
• Not just Art History or even Nineteenth-Century Painting, but the use of color and shading in French impressionism.

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A specialization is critical in helping you create a fit with a graduate program. If you know your focus before you apply, you can be sure the program will have the necessary resources to support your studies, you will have colleagues to collaborate with, and you will have at least one expert to oversee your work. If you choose a focus after being accepted, you may not be able to study your primary interest or you may have problems finishing your degree.

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If you do not have a focus, ask yourself:

• What were your favorite courses and assignments, and why?
• What aspects or issues got you interested in your major?
• What research and readings do you find most interesting?

If these questions do not lead you to a focus, you may not know your field well enough and may want to discuss your plans with a professor.

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• Take an independent study course (399 or 499) and write a research paper in an area of interest. For example, if you are interested in music, you might analyze Mozart’s wind concertos. If you are interested in Chinese history, you might study the Cultural Revolution. This will not only give you a chance to get to know your professors better, but will show you a good example of what it is like to be an independent scholar as graduate students need to be.
  
  
• Read journal articles in your specialty area. This is helpful for any level of graduate study, because it gives you acquaintance with current issues and helps you learn the “vocabulary” to use in your statement of objectives.
  
  
• Become familiar with the faculty doing research in your field (for PhD students this is vital), not just faculty in Hawai‘i, but worldwide. As part of that community of scholars, there are a number of professors doing cutting edge research.
  
  
• Make contact with the experts. If in Hawai‘i, try to work with an expert here for your 499 course. If they are at a program to which you might apply, write to them with any questions you have about their work.
  
  
• If you can, publish; this is especially advisable for those interested in a PhD. Most universities are giving undergraduates more opportunities to do research and, while you are not likely to create and do your own research project, you can get involved in what someone else is doing and possibly co-author a paper.
  
  

C. Gain Experience (especially important for professional degrees)

Faculty admission committees want to know whether you understand the nature of the work before they commit to the effort required to produce a graduate student. Gaining experience is also for your own protection. Graduate, and especially professional degrees are very expensive. You need to be sure that this is what you want to do before you invest several years and many thousands of dollars in pursuing a degree.

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• Internships or practica. These are often connected to courses in your major, and you should take advantage of these even if they are not required. Some opportunities offer wages in addition to academic credit.
  
  
• Paid jobs in your field or in related fields are always good experience, whether or not they earn academic credit.
  
  
• Volunteer work not only provides experience, but can demonstrate a commitment to public service as well, which is important for some professional fields.

D. Maintain Academic Excellence

In general, your grade point average, or GPA, must be 3.0 or higher for you to be admitted to graduate study. In short, the best advice is:

Get good grades!

Get good grades!

Get good grades!

• You must do particularly well in courses related to your field and in upper division courses in general (at UHM, upper division means 300- and 400-level).
  
  
• For general admission purposes, UHM looks at only the last two years.
  
  
• Admissions committees of schools and of individual programs will study the courses you took, looking carefully at the kinds of courses, content areas, level of difficulty, and semester loads.
  
  
• Good grades in difficult courses, especially in the field or in related areas, mean much more than easy or irrelevant course work. Good grades in graduate-level courses are a bonus.
  
  
• Admission into programs is competitive, which means that even someone with a 3.7 GPA may not be admitted if there are many outstanding applicants.
  
  

E. Research Graduate Programs

The final step before applying is to study which graduate programs are of interest to you and would be a good fit.

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Specifically, does a given university have the right degree within the right program for your focus?

For example, let us say that you interested in the study of fish as a food. You are pretty sure you want to get a PhD, but you want to get a Masters first. Would your focus be best found in a zoology program where they have a specialization in ichthyology (the study of fish)? In a food science program that considers fisheries (where fish are raised for food) a part of their expertise? Would either of these programs allow you to start with a Masters then continue on to a doctorate?

• Check the current Peterson’s Graduate and Professional Programs, which is published annually and lists faculty and research specialties.
  
  
• Research the authors of major journal articles in your area; short biographies, including where they teach, are usually included in the journal, either as part of the article or in a separate “Biographies” section.
  
  
• Use the internet: “Google” your focus, add “university” or a degree (MA or PhD, for example) and see what you get.
  
  
• Ask your professors and current graduate students for their advice.
  
  
• Ask your reference librarian for help finding programs with expertise in your specialty.
  
  

From this information, make a list of programs that seem like “good bets.”

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Once you know the programs that offer your specialty, you need to ask:

• Is the program strong in your focus? I.e., is its expertise recognized nationally?
• Who are the faculty? What are their specializations and their academic reputations?
• What resources does the program offer? What labs, studios, or office space and other resources do they provide for graduate students?
• What kind of financial support might they offer?
• How is the curriculum structured?
• What is required for the degree? How long does it normally take to complete?
• What are the program’s completion and attrition rates?
• What is the school’s and the program’s reputations? (Check the Gorman report, the Peterson’s volumes, major business magazines such as U.S. News and World Report, Business Report, or Newsweek, professor’s recommendations, and good old-fashioned gossip and hearsay.)

Answers to these questions should narrow your list to somewhere between five and ten programs.

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At the graduate level, the program is the most important factor, but do not just ignore the campus; setting does matter. Check out campuses just as you did for your undergraduate degree:

• Location (weather, travel costs, rural or urban setting, , etc.)
• Community (what part of the U.S., available housing, job market, cost of living, level of diversity, etc.)
• Size (of the campus, of the program, of each class of graduates, of the nearest city)
• Graduate Students (what are they like, what is the program’s “culture,” etc.)
• Support services (health care insurance, LGBT programs, counseling, etc.)
• Campus resources (libraries, computer labs, gymnasiums, etc.)

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