<p>Since many of you here are wonderful and knowledgeable and awesome at answering questions, I was wondering if anyone here had any insight into how grad school actually works?</p>
<p>Even though I know this thread is slightly misplaced, I'm asking because I've almost come to a decision for undergrad but knowing a bit more about grad school will very much influence my decision (when I talk about graduate school, I'm talking about a masters program, not PhD).</p>
<p>What do you need to get in other than a high GPA and letters of rec?
Is grad school harder to get into (competitiveness) than undergrad?
Is private funding really the only way to finance grad school?</p>
<p>I've heard varying things, is grad school primarily research?
Do I get to sit down in a classroom and learn things that way?
Do I have to publish even if I am just getting a masters?</p>
<p>You take The Graduate Record Examination(GRE), which is basically the SAT, but for graduate school. Usually, you submit a writing sample; it’s recommended that it be your best paper that you’ve written as an undergraduate student. I think you also submit a statement of purpose, which discusses why you want to go to graduate school. I might be missing some stuff, but that’s most of it, if not all of it.</p>
<p>Graduate school is extremely competitive. At good schools, acceptance rates are about 5% or less. You said you wanted to go to Stanford for grad school, so I’m going to let you know right now that the acceptance rate for their master’s anthropology program is probably in the 1%~5% range. Your odds of getting in are, needless to say, pretty low.</p>
<p>If you’re a competitive applicant and you get accepted, your grad school may finance most, if not all of your education through a combination of stipends and teaching assistantships. It depends, really.That’ll be fun.</p>
<p>Grad school is primarily research-based, but you still take classes and stuff. You’ll probably have to write a master’s thesis, which is a huge research project, but not nearly on the level of a Ph.D. dissertation.</p>
<p>That link lists many, many, many reasons not to go to graduate school. I strongly recommend that you read it. Admittedly, it applies more to Ph.D. students than those who are seeking master’s degrees only, but I believe it is still at least somewhat relevant.</p>
<p>Why do you want to go to graduate school? IMO (besides engineering, CS or MBA) it’s really for academics; people who want to devote their entire lives to studying one subject. Do you want to devote your life to studying one subject too?</p>
<p>One of the people in my SMC class got a 4.0, transferred to UCLA and got a 4.0, then was rejected to nearly every single graduate program. She is now back in CC trying to get 4 FL to intermediate level so she is competitive for her program. Based on that anecdotal evidence it is hella competitive. </p>
<p>Grad school is very competitive for certain respectable programs at universities such as Stanford, Berkeley, or Michigan. Other than letters of recommendation, excellent grades, and your GRE scores, you need undergraduate research experience. And when applying to grad school, even the small factors such as the rigor of your classes and where you did your undergrad matters (this does not apply to law or medical school). </p>
<p>And yes, grad school is primarily research-intensive for a program like anthropology. </p>
<p>@Cayton </p>
<p>lol are you trying to scare people away with that blog? Now they’ll never consider grad school </p>
<p>I am offended by your failure to mention UCLA in your list of respectable schools. :(</p>
<p>But @AnthroFlo, @ocnative is right. You’ll need some academic internships and research experience too to be competitive. Also, I’ve looked into graduate school in philosophy and one piece of advice I was given was to take more classes in philosophy than the minimum for the major. That might apply to you to, but for anthropology. You’ll probably have to take more anthropology classes than necessary to be competitive, and you’ll have to get good grades in them too.</p>
<p>I remember seeing those episodes referencing the struggles that graduate students faced years ago on TV. The Simpsons were very much ahead of the curve back then in implying that the life of the graduate student is often a difficult one.</p>
<p>As a person who went to grad school (masters) but never wrote the thesis, unless you want to teach or something, I would say not worth it. Masters inlcudes regular (albeit smaller) classes and seminars, plus research. I really don’t see an issue in undergrad at UCLA or Cal in terms of getting into a good grad school. I am going to go read that article Cayton posted right now. It seems similar to the one I read from Forbes saying MBAs were a total waste of money unless it was from one of the top 5 universities. This whole grad thing is overrated in most instances, which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t such a money drain.</p>
<p>I’ve worked for a few F100 companies, and there are many positions that require an MBA. Entry level marketing job for example require an MBA to even get your resume reviewed. They are not as concerned with what the school is, but rather the degree earned.</p>
<p>I’m an old guy and have been in the corporate world for about 15 years now. I can only speak from my experience working with dozens of business executives at varying levels, at several large corporations. Most of them, the successful ones that I knew, had graduate degrees. Also, most of them were hired over the competition that did not have graduate degrees. I’m not saying graduate degrees are necessary, or even important for that matter, however I think it’s important that this thread is a little more balanced with varying opinions. I can’t agree with some of the absolute disregard for graduate degrees some in here are suggesting. It is all relative to the industry you are applying to. And I don’t know what that is, so just be sure to do your homework and find out who is hiring in the industry you want to enter, and what levels of education are landing the jobs you want. </p>
<p>FWIW, I’m entering law school after my UG, and if that is an interest at all, much of the pre-reqs mentioned for graduate school above are not required. The most important factors of law school is your GPA and LSAT scores. That’s about 95% of the factoring in admissions.</p>
<p>I certainly am no expert on MBAs, and I know the rule the last 25 years has been get an MBA or perish, but the thoughts on that are changing. As unfamiliar as I may be about general business, I fully get the notion of “return on investment.” </p>
<p>Here are four articles I quickly rounded up noting the MBA model is changing. Besides the inflexibility of many MBA programs, the lack of leadership from MBA graduates unless connected with top programs, the most important drawback is the whopping $200,000 price tag that is not money well spent. </p>
<p>The general debate I keep hearing is to really think it out before committing. Better to be forward-thinking. </p>
<p>A better alternative (says the Wall Street journal) is DEV BOOTCAMP. It’s coding, folks. Every CEO in Silicon Valley knows coding and it’s the new crucial component in our global digitized market. </p>
<p>The last link, below, is the WSJ article about Dev Bootcamp over an MBA and then the Dev Bootcamp website. I suggested to my daughter after she graduate, she should do an intensive Dev for about $12,000 to augment her major. Hell, I even want to take it. Intense, but it looks like a blast - Check the website. </p>
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