6 Ways We Wish Our Undergrad Prepared Us For Grad School

By Madison White on May 6, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

If there is one thing that surrounds the area of graduate school, it has to be mystery. From researching to applying to teaching, much of what is known about graduate school surprisingly is more difficult to find as an undergraduate. Unless you’ve already done loads of your own research, there are probably many things about graduate school you don’t know yet and won’t be told unless you go looking for them. Sometimes the things you should know about graduate school are things that would’ve been helpful knowing your first year of your undergrad.

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Regardless of how you approach the mountain that is grad school, here are six ways we wish undergrad would’ve prepared us for grad school.

1. Course intensive

One of the things your undergraduate degree will not prepare you for is the intense study of a singular subject. Sure, you thought you took a lot of specific classes during your Bachelor’s, but many of those courses were surrounded by gen-eds, minor classes, or just fun electives.

When you enter grad school, however, your studies will be of that subject and only of that subject. The overhaul of one single area may seem like a dream to you, especially after dragging through your required speech class, but it doesn’t take much for you to be bogged down by it.

Don’t fret, many grad programs will offer similar courses within your field that may just take a different approach than the ones you’re in and sometimes that will be enough to spike your interest again.

2. Lasting relationships

Many undergrads also aren’t warned of just how quickly college can go, especially if you end up graduating a bit early. This could mean that you only have six semesters to build lasting relationships for those extremely important recommendation letters. Believe me, you’ll need a lot of them. If you’ve found yourself in large classes or switching professors often, this can seem like quite the task, especially if you’re forced to rush into building solid relationships because graduate deadlines are approaching. If you can, plan ahead and try to develop those bonds early on and carry them through your career.

3. The GRE

Honestly, I was heavily considering graduate school and didn’t even know what the GRE was until a year before graduation. Perhaps it was just my school and major, but I genuinely didn’t have a clue that it was necessary for almost all grad schools. The idea of an inclusive, standardized test was a thing I thought I had left in the past.

While in high school, many of your teachers were well aware of your progress towards graduating, but in college when everybody runs on a different time schedule, your professors likely have no idea. This makes finding general information difficult unless you do a ton of research and know about it beforehand. Thankfully, I didn’t wait to find out about the GRE two weeks before application deadlines, but it could’ve been easily missed.

4. How it works

Much like my experience with the unknown GRE, my entire perception of grad school, the admissions process, the deadlines, and the requirements was something I had to find out entirely on my own. Unless you’ve mentioned it to your professors specifically, you aren’t going to be handed any information. My advice is that even if you’re just considering going to grad school, make sure you find out as much about it as you can in plenty of time before deadlines.

This way you’ll find out about recommendations, requirements, personal statements, finances, and other opportunities in due time. If you’re still confused (honestly, websites aren’t much help sometimes) ask the graduate students in your desired program how they did it. They’ll have some useful and specific information you wouldn’t find anywhere else.

5. Teaching

When entering graduate school, it is not uncommon to take up a graduate teaching assistant position. This usually means that you’ll be helping, grading, and even teaching intro level courses in your field. This is great for boosting your professorial experience and your resume.

However, many grad students go into this without any educational knowledge. You were probably in that intro class at one point, but your memory has long since faded. If you know you’ll be heading into a GTA position, try and find out as much as you can about teaching and educating even if it isn’t your desired career. Ask older graduate students and professors for advice on dealing with students and all the responsibility that comes with it.

6. Level of professionalism

As an undergrad, it is not uncommon to see people skim by in their education. Some will hardly turn up to class or spend most of it on their cell phones because frankly, it doesn’t really matter in a 300-person lecture hall. However, when you enter grad school, you’re catapulted into a new level of accountability. You’re expected to look, write, speak, and act as a novice professor would. Your classes and relations will be much more intimate and close than the large courses you were used to before. You will not be able to get by with your lazy habits of the past in graduate school. You will be held at a much higher level of accountability.

While much of applying to undergraduate schools feels very cut and dry, the process of graduate school seems alternately ambiguous. While you may not know about your plans to attend graduate school from the very beginning of your undergrad degree, the best advice is to start researching and preparing as soon as possible. However, don’t get lost in looking ahead and forget to enjoy perhaps the simpler days of your college career. They matter just as much.

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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