How to navigate the Graduate School application/process?

Graduate School
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How to navigate the Graduate School application/process?

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Thanks for replying to my threads. Here is the background. This forum gave many insights for My son’s college journey.

He has reached a stage to explore Graduate Schools towards Astrophysics. His GPA 3.58+ with Physics Major, Astronomy Minor. He is going to do GRE soon. He is relying of his academic advisor.

The decision of which graduate schools to apply to can feel completely overwhelming.It’s important to remember that each application costs money and time.

Will Colleges have independent advisors to assess his assets/weakness to navigate Graduate School application process?

What are the reliable resources to help him ?

Do Graduate school offer FEE waivers ?

Are there mechanisms reduce applications cost, when applying to multiple schools?

Are there any strategies to help him ?

Thanks for guidance.

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This is something your son should work on primarily with his advisor AND faculty members he has gotten to know during his studies. A great deal depends on your son’s field of interest within astrophysics, and in finding programs and faculty that specializes in what he’s interested in. In other words, the strategy is much more nuanced than when applying as an undergrad.

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His physics advisor and other physics and astronomy faculty will probably be most helpful. There are also online physics and astrophysics forums he can look on.

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Applying to graduate school can certainly add up in costs. There are application fees and fees for sending GRE scores. My daughter and her boyfriend went through the application process during this past cycle. They are both in STEM fields. They both applied to about 12 or so schools each hoping to land in the same city. That didn’t quite end up happening but they did end up with two schools within commutable distance. It was time consuming to figure out which schools to apply to, doing all the applications, and waiting for interviews and results. It was much more about finding potential matches with researchers. Each of their advisors at their school were helpful as were mentors at their summer internships in helping them figure out where to apply. I think two of my daughter’s application fees were waived, one because she was attending the school as an undergrad, and the other for an unknown reason.

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Funding varies, obviously, and masters programs that are terminal tend to have less funding than masters along the way to a PhD. I don’t know much about science grad programs but I do know that at some state universities they get the best funding.

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You know how much you helped your child when he applied to college? How you kept him on track, and shared every step with him, and talked over all of his decision issues at great length?

This isn’t like that. Plan not to be heavily involved.

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I would ask in the grad forums
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/
or theGradCafe forums

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Your S needs to “find his people” as I always told my S when he was looking. His advisors can help, and he can look at papers in areas he is interested in to find out if there are faculty who are accepting students for projects. If he is aiming for a PhD, he will probably have a couple of years of coursework before getting into a particular research project but he might be able to start working with someone earlier.

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My oldest just went through this process and starts grad school this fall. She’s in the diplomacy and foreign affairs world so I’m not versed in the STEM grad school process but last year I helped a friend of hers with his grad school essays for aerospace and he ended up getting into some famous school in Paris…which he then turned down for Stanford…which he then turned down for MIT. So that worked out pretty well. :slight_smile:

My D applied to 7 schools and got into 7…in retrospect, she kind of wish she had applied to more…she felt like she perhaps underestimated her value and - we found out – having acceptances in hand makes it much much easier to appeal financial aid offers…in her case, it came down to johns hopkins and tufts and she chose one.

Her experience:

  1. you really need your GRE score in hand before you can decide what schools to target. i'm just guessing at this but he'll likely need at least in the low 160s to be competitive within this major.
  2. Even more so than undergrad, it really helps to try for schools where he'll be at the top of the pile...two of the schools D got into offered her almost a full ride.
  3. but that's where it gets complicated because she really wanted to be in a school where she would be a striver so she ended choosing a tough school and received a much more modest award (though it truly helped).
  4. grad school applications are a bear...every one is unique...but you do get into a groove and application 7 was a breeze compared to application 1.
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Moved to Grad School Forum

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You did your job, parent. Now you need to back off and let him navigate. Your role is providing use of your credit card for those online expenses such as paying for the GRE and applications. Otherwise- nothing you can do except be a sounding board IF he wants one.

His advisor and other professors who know him are the ones he goes to for advice. They are the ones who know programs and people. They are the ones who will be writing letters of recommendation and making suggestions.

I would assume he would get funding for any program that accepts him. This could be being a TA (teaching assistant) then a RA 9research assistant). The schools he applies to will be good in their field- not always the big names for undergrads. His profs will know which programs are more likely to take him.

So, your job is moral support. Please do not bug him by trying to be helpful. This is very different than applying to a whole college/university. He is applying to a specific department. No generalized application et al.

Our son overreached for math grad programs (a brutal field- math GRE has a top score of 900 and of course people from all over the world, they typically will have an 800 on the regular GRE) and ignored less than top programs. He discovered from a fellow math major at his U that the “lesser” programs had merit. He changed directions and finished the second major in CS, never reapplying. You can only follow your son’s path, sigh. btw- given how many PhD’s, even with elite credentials, do not get jobs it worked out for the best for son in his field. He is being intellectually satisfied et al.

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@MDRI . I’d ignore those telling you to back off. Every kid is different, every undergraduate college’s advising resources and availability of plugged-in, helpful professors, is different, and every grad school application process is unique. If your kid is willing to work with you, go for it.

When my son and I talked during his junior year, he planned on continuing on for a 5th year at his huge undergraduate college and getting a 4+1 masters degree in aerospace engineering. Even getting an appointment with an advisor was difficult. I asked him what his goal was and he said that he wanted to get a PhD. With that in mind, we worked together to refine his search, paid for him to visit some schools, and to complete a summer research program.

Long story short: he just finished his “5th year” as a PhD pre-candidate in aerospace engineering at Michigan. He passed all his qualifying exams, so he is now officially a PhD student. Instead of paying for a 5th year at his undergraduate university, Michigan pays him a stipend, all his tuition, and full health insurance. He thanked me for believing in him and encouraging him.

Now my son had to take the GRE, write all the essays, and get the necessary recommendations. He did all the hard work; I just encouraged him and helped him focus.

The process with my second son was different, but I still helped. He just wanted a masters degree in biomedical engineering. I helped him put together a spreadsheet of top-20 “affordable” graduate programs. This helped him focus on what he wanted to learn in a masters program and gave him confidence that he would be a strong candidate, wherever he applied. Again, he had to prep for and take the GRE, write the essays, and get the necessary recommendations. Ultimately, he was accepted by UC San Diego, Duke, and Georgia Tech, among others. He is off to Georgia Tech this fall for a one-year masters in engineering program.

Send me a message if you like and we can talk more.

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He might need to investigate whether he needs the physics GRE in addition to the general GRE.

Has he been participating in UG research on his home campus? Via an REU? Does he have profs who function as mentors? Those are the people he needs to be having these conversations with. They are the ones who will write his LOR and help point him toward grad programs. (If he hasn’t been participating in research with excellent relationships with mentoring professors, he will be at a serious disadvantage when applying. UG research is vital.)

In terms of cost, it is expensive to apply. He needs to plan on a way to pay for those costs. Travel expenses will probably be reimbursed. Grad school itself, though, is typically fully funded with tuition costs, a living stipend, and health insurance.

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Discussions with the faculty at his current school will be most helpful - the younger faculty know the scoop on how their peers from various PhD programs have fared and who the good advisors are and who to stay away from. The senior faculty can be useful in making connections with faculty elsewhere who have funding for students in the area your son wants to specialize in. Word of mouth is big in learning about PhD programs.

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I just went and looked at the other threads you have posted about your ds. You mentioned he was not able to get internships. Has he participated in research? His GPA is only a small part of his grad school app. What is he doing this summer? If I understand the situation correctly, your ds is a rising sr. (In 6/17 he had completed his freshman yr). If he hasn’t taken the PGRE and it is required for astrophysics apps (it is for most physics programs), he needs to start planning now. It is only offered 3 times per yr: Sept, Oct, and April. https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/about/

He can start reading here to see what some of other applicants are submitting (only a few poster share, but the ones that do can be revealing) https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=AstroPhysics&t=a&o=&pp=25

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His advisor at his current school, other faculty, here.

These seem like the same question, so you may need to clarify.

Some will waive the application fee if he can demonstrate financial need but he will need to check with each school individually. There is no national system for waiving application fees. I am not aware of any systems that will allow him to apply to multiple schools for a single fee. The most common way to control the cost is by simply limiting the number of schools to which he applies.

University fees, the ones that accompany tuition, may or may not be waived as part of his financial aid package - mine, in electrical engineering, were covered by my department, my wife’s, in archaeology, were not and she had to pay ~$1000 per semester to attend after her assistantship tuition waiver. Grad school financial aid takes the forms of fellowships and assistantships, and can vary wildly in how much they cover, how much they pay after costs, for how long they are guaranteed, and what they expect in return. When he receives offers they will explain what is and is not covered and he should use that in making his decisons. In the astrophysics the attendance fees will probably be covered.

Yes, many, but they depend on what help he needs. Grad school is very individual, like applying for a professional job - they aren’t looking for a warm body, they’re looking for a person with specific skills and experience. His advisors and faculty can help him identify programs, and he can and should try to contact faculty at those schools to see if their research interests align with his. In grad school you apply to a department but will generally only be admitted if there are faculty who want him in their research groups. A perfect GPA and GRE won’t get him into a school if he is not prepared or interested in the work available at that school.

The GRE is generally the smallest factor in admissions, more a check to see that he can perform in an environment where they are sure he isn’t being assisted - a great score doesn’t help much (except in getting fellowships!), but a low score can cause problems. Research is king, so if he hasn’t done any undergrad research he needs to get involved ASAP. The most valuable parts of the application are the GPA (which demonstrate an ability to handle the coursework) and letters of recommendation from faculty who have supervised or observed his research efforts (which demonstrate his ability to do research).

Good luck!

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I’d add that gradcafe is a pretty subpar resource when it comes to physics/astrophysics. Very few of us are active on that site, partly because very few of us are active, so there’d be no one to talk to. The stats reporting system there is also really limited and doesn’t give you a good picture of the applicant’s profile. We use physicsgre.com instead. It’s a good resource to find where different calibre applicants are getting accepted/waitlisted/rejected.

I will say that depending on what schools he’s aiming for, the GPA and a lack of formal research experience are worrying. The GRE and PGRE are being phased out of a lot of programs, and isn’t taken all that seriously for most others, so it’s not a place where he can “make up” for any great weaknesses. A high score is just a formality.

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This info might be helpful:
https://www.gradschoolshopper.com/gradschool/browseby.jsp?q=3&cid=8