Grad School for Everyone!
Researching graduates schools can be daunting, however extremely rewarding if you are organized, motivated, and excited about the process. If you are excited about the profession, that excitement will carry over into your search and make it a much more pleasant one. I will share my personal process as well as some tips and tricks to making your search process a great one.
Always remember to develop criteria for your search, developing criteria will help the decision process become easier. Without criteria you have nothing to base your search on. This will be an important thing you will learn in the future about assessment and goal setting. There are many ways to start and many different reasons to select or dismiss a school from your list of possible options.
Here are a few:
1) Location
2) Program Type: Counseling or Practitioner based
3) Research/Academic, Practice based, Combination
4) Faculty
5) Finances
6) Requirements/Deadlines
There are probably many more things to consider, however these were my 5 most pressing concerns. I used the following article to assist in figuring out my criteria for my search. To discern the different criteria I went to a couple of sites to do some research. I didn’t limit my research to this site, however, it is an amazing first resource. You can go to the American College Personnel Association, which lists all of the nationally certified programs based on CAS or Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education. For those who don’t know, CAS standards are basically a universally accepted framework for education programs that provide best practices and methods for preparing future professioals. Here is a link to some more information if you are interested. Like I said there are many other sites, but this is my favorite. It will become a helpful tool in your search. You can browse the ACPA directory either alphabetically or geographically.
Since considering location was important to me, I most often browsed geographically. There are some things to consider when looking at programs based on geography. You want to think about places that you will be comfortable in. If you hate snow, the Midwest or Northeast is not a viable solution for you. The same if you don’t want to be far away from home. If distance is a concern for you, use MapQuest and map distance times from your family and loved ones. Types of programs may be of interest to you as well. This is important when deciding what you want to do as a career. There are some programs that focus on counseling and less on student development theory and practice and vice versa. There are all types. When looking into programs make sure you look at the offered courses and email schools you are interested in to ask questions about the type of program they offer. Some programs may also be highly research/academic based rather than practice based, there are all different combinations so make sure to check it out. Faculty is also a large draw for some individuals. I went through and looked at where some of the leading faculty were, I read some journals, read the Chronicle of Higher Education as well to learn about up and coming issues in the profession and what schools were addressing those needs. Since higher education funding is becoming an issue, finances were an important part of the process to me. They may not be to you, however, if funding your education is important to you, you may look at if the University provides graduate assistantships, tuition remission, etc. Requirements and deadlines for admission were the next steps in the process for me. They can make or break your chances at finding the right school. Some programs require higher GPAs, and GRE scores, while others do not. I personally am not a good standardized test taker, so I opted to focus on schools that didn’t require the testing. If you are good at tests, I encourage you to check out (http://www.ets.org/gre/) and see about testing dates and prices. Some schools also allow the MAT to be substituted. These tests can be pricey, but its an important investment ($140) in your education. So by cutting out that caramel macchiato once a week can you can easily make up the difference if its important to you.
Deadlines are also very essential. Make sure you note when applications are due, because most applications require many different types of information, ranging from letters of recommendation, statement of purposes, and information sheets, as well as transcripts. This information could take a while to obtain so pacing and planning come in handy. Never assume two programs are the same, every program requires something different so put on your detail oriented caps and be sure to read everything! The last and definitely not least way to conduct the process is to get opinions and suggestions from your mentors. Take the time out during your weekly one-on-one with your supervisor and slip in how they got to where they are today.
Most professionals love to talk about their journey and how they got becoming a Student Affairs Professional. Look at #sachat for instance. This online twitter collaboration tool allows you to talk to professionals all over North America an gain important nuggets of information on all sorts of possible school options. Resources for your search are abundant and plenty, don’t get overwhelmed with all the information. Like I stated, keeping organized and on task is very important in the process especially if you have many schools you are interested in applying to. I am very detail oriented and organized. I understand that not everyone’s mind works like mine. But for the J’s I will detail my method for staying on top of the process. After I went through and selected my schools, I bought a binder. I got a 3’ because I had nearly 10 schools. In the binder I divided it into sections based on University. In each section I printed off admission requirements, possible graduate assistantships I was interested in, important facts about the program, class offerings, etc. I then analyzed the information taking out requirements and deadlines. I made an excel sheet detailing deadlines and requirements. This helped when I started completing items. Whatever way helps keep you on task and on point will set you on the path of getting into that Grad School of your dreams. Hope this helps, and good luck your graduate school search process.
I truly never expected the response to last weeks post to be as significant as it was; bringing a whole host of support from the #sachat community, staff members, and students willing to get involved. As of today, we have grown to a group of 13 contributors in just 7 days; truly surreal. Even more exciting, however, is the way that technology has brought together undergraduates, pre-grad, grad students (both Master’s and Doctoral), and even some professionals; Discussing some of the most effective ways to collaborate and build a common vision, we created a Google document allowing everyone to meet in a common space and contribute on at their own convenience to content online. Over the last week, we have contributed our opinions about the vision, learning outcomes, structure, content, and timeline of posts and areas of interest for each writer, hoping to build enough material over the coming weeks to post consistently on relevant topics for the time of year! It really has been amazing to see the depth of discussion on the page in this regard; but don’t just take it from me, look for yourself!:
Without revealing too much of the content included in the page, above is some of what we put together! I hope this effectively refreshes your interest in what we’re doing, and hopefully look for more content in the next week or two, to post more consistently once we get some content solidified.
Transformational Leadership
Now that I’ve moving on to graduate studies for Student Affairs, I suppose I’m starting to develop a different perspective on things, especially as it relates to this blog. I started thinking about where this blog was going, and what I could do to really keep things interesting and refreshing. So, in light of a great ‘Call to Action’ from Bridgewater State College’s @EdCabellon‘s video Interview with Boston University’s @DeanElmore, and a little bit of time this summer, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to turn the limelight and share with the ‘Next Generation of Student Affairs.’ Using the amazing online community of Student Affairs professionals on #sachat, I sent a request for interested contributing authors.
Turns out, there was almost instantly an interest in getting involved in the project, and a huge support from Student Affairs pros to RT the request, and get the word out about what I was working on! And the spark (hopefully) will become a fire from here, representing students from all levels, from all areas of involvement and walks of life. It is in this forum that I hope to further allow students to highlight their stories, insights, opinions, and even concerns regarding the field of Student Affairs and higher education, and serve as a representative ‘voice’ of the next generation of student affairs!
And as for ‘transformational leadership,’ I hope it’s at least reminiscent of what the original intent of the quote of my recommending mentor when they said ‘No worries, just remember to pay it forward when you have a student who wants to enter the field!’
So please, if you’re interested, or know someone who might be, please have them send me an email here, DM, or tweet at me @brianleduc!
