Summary of the Application Process for Graduate School

1. Application Form. You need to get application forms from the various graduate schools you're interested in attending. You can get these by calling the sociology department at the university, or by filling out a postcard available in the Career Center. There is an application fee to pay when you submit your application, but this fee can be waived in the case of financial need.

2. Financial Aid. There are many sources of financial aid for graduate students. The financial aid office has information on scholarships and fellowships, and the institution you are planning to attend has many more sources, including research and teaching assistantships. When you request a graduate school application from an institution, be sure to ask for information about financial aid, even if you feel you don't need it.

3. Graduate Record Exam. For graduate school, you will likely need to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) which is currently very much like the SAT. It has three parts: a verbal section, a quantitative section, and an analytical section. The importance of this exam varies among universities. Some don't require it, some require only the verbal scores, but most require both the verbal and quantitative scores. The verbal section is most important for graduate school in sociology, and you can improve your score on this exam by working to expand your vocabulary. Whenever you come across an unfamiliar word, look it up, and write it down with its meaning on a card for future reference.

It is important that you find out early which sections of the GRE are required by the schools to which you will be applying, and it is to your advantage to do this early--preferably in your junior year.

4. Letters of Recommendation.

5. Samples of Your Work. The application usually requires that you submit a sample of your work, and it is probably a good idea to send more than one. You might want to send an outstanding term paper or a project proposal and completed paper done for an Independent Study.

6. Letter of Intent, Statement of Purpose, or Essays. Along with the application, you will generally need to write a Letter of Intent, a Statement of Purpose, or an essay detailing what you plan to do in graduate school, and what you plan to do when you finish. Since graduate school prepares you to do research, this is what you should emphasize in this letter. It is important that you don't say that you liked your undergraduate education so much that you want to continue taking classes. In graduate school, you may only take one seminar per term, and the rest of your time will be spent in teaching and doing your own research. So, emphasize your interest in doing research.

7. Official Transcripts of Undergraduate Work. Your undergraduate grades do matter, especially grades in courses required by your major. However, you will be sending official transcripts of all of your undergraduate work. Although they say you need a 3.0 to apply to most graduate departments, it is expected that you have a much higher grade point average in courses in your discipline. The highly competitive, highly ranked schools require a 3.7 or higher in these courses. Some less competitive schools may allow students with a 3.0 and a great deal of potential into their graduate programs.

8. The whole application process is not as difficult as it seems, but it is time-consuming. We recommend that you apply to at least three schools ranging in competitiveness from high to low. So, the more work you do on the application in your early undergraduate years, the less you'll have to do in your senior year, when you're busy with the Senior Seminar and with studying for your senior comprehensives. For some universities, the applications are due in mid-December, and for others in mid-January, so there isn't much time to complete the process if you put it off until your senior year.