Self-assessment and Selecting Grad Programs

As you consider grad school, you may need to begin by asking whether grad school is your best option. Working on these preliminary exercises below can help you confirm or correct your decisions, better understand your motivations and qualifications, and prepare you for your next steps.

As you work on these exercises and answer these questions, try not to force your responses into what you think other people want to hear. Take the time to slow down and carefully consider these questions. It’s important to be honest with yourself, so that you develop an accurate self-assessment. You can adjust your responses into a positive light for your specific applications later.

1. ASK YOURSELF SOME PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

• Why do you want to go to grad school as opposed to other options? 
• What are alternatives and their pros and cons? Make sure that you’re motivated and committed to persisting through your decision. Superficial motivations (e.g., my significant other/friends are doing the same; I don’t like the alternatives) probably won’t sustain you when challenges arise.
• How will your different options impact the people around you?
• How did you make difficult decisions in the past? What was your decision-making process? What were some valuable and less valuable aspects of your past decision-making process?

2. ASSESS YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

• Self-assessment tools can help you discover your strengths, so that you address them meaningfully in your conversations and applications. Tools such as StrengthsFinder and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can be helpful, and your university might have centers that can provide workshops to understand and apply your results.
• Completing an Individual Development Plan (e.g., using the myIDP or ChemIDP websites for those in the STEM disciplines, or the ImaginePhD website for those in the humanities and social sciences) can help you assess your skills, values, and interests.
• Simply reflecting and journaling about your past experiences can help you determine past patterns of success and achievements. You can also work through Stories of success to boost your self-awareness, an exercise designed to help you become more aware of your strengths, values, relationships, and structures that have helped you to succeed.  We (the authors of this guide) have used it in workshops with positive outcomes from participants.

3. ASSESS YOUR QUALIFICATIONS FOR GRAD SCHOOL

Are you a standout or star candidate? Candidates with this profile typically have the following characteristics. But don’t automatically rule yourself out of admission into a top-tier program! The only way you know if you qualify is to apply.

• 3.5 GPA or higher (same or higher in your major)
• GRE scores at the 90th percentile or higher for the Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning components
• Research experiences (such as with summer programs or during the academic year lasting at least 9 months) leading to presentations (oral or poster) at a conference or in a publication
• Relevant coursework, internships or jobs in your field
• Research methods and/or statistics courses, particularly for those in social or quantitative fields
• Strong letters of recommendation from professors who have supervised your research that provide in-depth personal stories about you as a researcher/scholar, comparing you to similar students who have gone on to succeed in graduate school
• Excellent writing skills, which are particularly important in the humanities, where writing samples are often required with your application

If you believe that you’re not a standout candidate, here are some options.

• Apply to more graduate programs — both top-tier and second-tier programs — to increase your chances of getting admitted. All programs should have at least two faculty you’d be happy to work with.
• Do your best to have strong letters of recommendation, as these will become more important. Suggestions about your letters are offered further below.
• Have a recommender or two address how perceived weaknesses in your application (e.g., low grades in your first year or GRE scores) don’t reflect your true promise. Also, be sure to address these unusual aspects in your personal statement.
• If you’re able, take grad-level courses, get more research experience, participate in a post-baccalaureate program, or pursue a master’s degree to transition into more competitive doctoral programs.
• But don’t automatically rule yourself out of admission into a top-tier program! 

4. CONDUCT INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS

Find grad students, postdocs, faculty, and professionals who seem to be doing what interests you, and ask them to chat with you briefly. Ask them about their work: general responsibilities, challenges, and benefits; what a typical day looks like; strengths and skills that have helped them to succeed; their career path and their motivations at critical decision points. See if you can envision yourself in a similar role and career path. (This article provides further advice on how to conduct an informational interview for grad students.)

5. SEEK COUNSEL FROM FACULTY AND CAREER COUNSELORS

Talk with faculty who know you to help you determine whether you have the essential qualifications to succeed in grad school (this will also help you when you need recommendation letters). Faculty can also suggest specific grad programs and universities to consider.

Your university probably also has academic advisors and career counselors who may be able to provide career self-assessments, mock interviews, and other resources.

6. SEEK RESEARCH EXPERIENCES AND INTERNSHIPS

Whether or not you attend grad school, these research experiences are vital in preparing you for a wide range of options, and they can also help you decide between grad or professional programs, master’s or PhD programs, applying to grad school immediately or delaying for some time, etc. Many academic and preparatory programs will not only provide research experiences, but also valuable professional development workshops, community-building, and mentorship.

7. SEARCH ONLINE FOR SPECIFIC UNIVERSITIES AND PROGRAMS

This is where to begin if the previous steps seem to confirm that you have the essential qualifications and sufficient motivation for grad school. Try to identify the programs that your peers (with similar interests and academic credentials) were admitted into and have succeeded in. Rankings of grad programs within your discipline might also help, but don’t get caught up too much in rankings. It’s much more important to find a program with faculty doing work that aligns with your interests. Organize each program's application requirements, deadlines, and specific faculty whose work interests you.

8. IF YOU’RE THINKING OF CHANGING DISCIPLINES between YOUR UNDERGRAD PROGRAM TO your GRAD PROGRAM

You might be considering changing fields for a number of reasons. Perhaps your undergraduate institution did not offer a specific field as a major and/or research opportunities in your desired field. Your interests might have also evolved as you discovered a particular field late in your undergraduate program, and it was extremely difficult to change majors.

If you are contemplating changing fields, plan your transition carefully. Talk with people (faculty, grad students, postdocs, and staff) in both your current field and new field, and ask if your transition would be feasible. Learn about the different expectations in graduate applications and programs for each field. For example, because engineering graduate programs often involve more coursework, the transition from a chemistry undergraduate program into a chemical engineering graduate program can be difficult. The feasibility of this transition depends on whether your coursework and research experiences provide sufficient preparation for the new program.

Furthermore, because many universities encourage interdisciplinary research projects, transitioning fields or departments within grad school is often simpler than trying to make a transition during the admissions process. You might consider staying within the field of your undergraduate program for grad school and then making the transition after you’ve been accepted and started grad school. You might also consider applying to more than one graduate program within the same university to see which admits you, if the university allows applying to more than one graduate program. Many universities (but not all) allow you to apply to only one graduate program at their institution.

9. IF YOU’RE IN THE BIOSCIENCES AND TRYING TO DECIDE BETWEEN PHD, MD, AND PHD-MD PROGRAMS

It might help to learn about a research study that interviewed and followed undergrads as they selected and pursued these different programs. This study identified different attributes among undergraduates that predicted persistence into PhD and MD/PhD training (“Identifying Future Scientists: Predicting Persistence into Research Training”). Reviewing this study might help you reflect on your own attributes and determine if they align with the predicted career trajectories as reported in this paper.