In the US, the best graduate schools are very competitive and tend to admit only the cream of the crop. Usually, these institutions only get the cream of the crop, so they have a very small graduate student population. Still, many students want to apply to these institutions because they believe they will get the best kind of instruction there is for their chosen field.
Health
In 2008, the University of Washington was commended for its excellent nursing program. At rank three, The University of Pennsylvania, another competitive graduate institution, has an acceptance rate of 21%. And in the case of Washington University, acceptance rate is at 67%.
Education
Graduate degrees are very specialized. One of the most specialized graduate programs is in the area of education. Advanced education degrees focus on different aspects of education such as educational theories, educational administration, and educational psychology. As of 2008, the Teacher’s College of Columbia University has the most competitive teacher’s program. Its acceptance rate is only about 48%.
Social science
The Social sciences are broad by convention therefore varying universities excel for a particular graduate program. However, some top-ranking universities are noted for their very selective admission standards. For example, Stanford tops the Psychology program and holds an acceptance record of 11%. Harvard, which also has one of the country’s most competitive political science program, presents a lower acceptance rate at 9%.
Engineering and the natural sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers some of the country’s best graduate programs, so MIT receives hundreds of applications every year. To maintain a low student-teacher ratio, MIT overall acceptance rate is only 14%, which ranks it as the most difficult university to enter with respect to the fields of engineering and the natural sciences. To ensure that it only gets students who are capable of coping with the rigorous academic demands of its programs, MIT looks for applicants with SAT math scores above 700.
Humanities
According to experts in the field, Harvard University has one of the best graduate programs in English. Yale offers the best History program according to a huge number of respondents. Princeton, the University of California – Berkeley, and Stanford also have competitive graduate programs in the Humanities.
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Earning a graduate degree is an investment for it furthers your potentials and demands time, effort, and money. Although a bachelor’s degree may have already prepared you for the initial steps of your career, having advanced knowledge pertinent to a certain field can make a difference.
Your graduate degree and your career path
Having a graduate degree can provide you with more career opportunities. Because of your advanced learning and better qualifications, more job positions are open to you. There also exists the chance to be promoted if currently employed.
With better career options, the salary will also be more competitive. Definitely, getting a graduate degree comes in handy when you apply for a higher position in the academe or the corporate world and would also merit you better chance to negotiate for a better salary .
Your graduate degree as an accomplishment
Earning the degree itself is an accomplishment. Having a graduate degree is something to be proud of. Not everyone who pursues graduate studies end up finish their chosen program.
Usually, graduating with a bachelor’s degree provides you with the basics needed in order to survive in the real world. Graduate studies, however, equip a person with more advanced skills and knowledge that are very particular to a specific situation or task. You can become an expert or a specialist in that particular area of your field of study.
Your graduate degree as a networking tool
Being connected to important people can advance one’s career. Going to graduate school allows you to expand or broaden your network and look for contacts. In graduate school, aside from working with professors who are considered pillars in their discipline, you get to establish ties with fellow students who may prove significant to you in the future. Attending graduate school requires just as much social skills as you need technical and logical ones.
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The graduate thesis is probably the most important part prerequisite for getting that graduate diploma. That said, thesis preparation must be done with care and with proper application of gained knowledge either school taught or from research works. After all, writing a graduate thesis proves just the amount of learning a student had for the whole duration of his study. For the sake of coming up with a good graduate thesis, a general flow would be:
Get your thesis adviser to approve your topic
Upon brainstorming, one can list possible topics for the graduate thesis. These topics are then to be submitted to a thesis adviser for approval. The thesis adviser’s role is very important since it is he who does all the filtering of feasible and unfeasible topics.
Research on background information
Upon approval of the topic, research follows. Research may be done through extensive readings: through library visits, reading of scholarly journals, and browsing through reliable Internet information. Research data can either be quantitative or qualitative; Research for qualitative data may be done using surveys or interviews: testing presumptions through samples or respondents.
Come up with an outline
It is essential to create an outline so that you can create a map of ideas. A graduate thesis can be very lengthy so it is important to have a coherent guide to follow while going through the writing process.
Prepare a draft
Coming up with drafts of the graduate thesis is important in order to fully observe the effective combination and sense of the pooled information gathered. Beginning work early allows one to do several drafts before starting with the final version. This way, errors can be avoided upon coming up with each draft. Also, these drafts can be read for constructive criticism, all for the betterment of the graduate thesis.
Check for errors in language and presentation
Even when already dealing with the final draft, checking errors in the content of the thesis paper is still a must. Regardless of the extent of employing techniques in doing research, chaotic writing delivers the wrong image; sometimes a well-researched thesis can come out as something that was poorly done due to bad writing.
Bear in mind the specifications
Finally, the graduate thesis should be printed on clean sheets of paper. Following instructions given by the thesis adviser is something that should be given great attention to.
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Becoming a professor’s research assistant certainly has its perks. Earning an advanced degree can be costly and taking a full-time job is sometimes not an option especially if you have decided on a much heavier load for a certain term. Being a student assistant or a research assistant gives a degree earner more time to focus on his or her studies while earning a bit more cash to pay for some of the miscellaneous expenses. Here are some of the advantages of being a research assistant:
Gaining relevant experience
A research assistant allows one to have relevant work experience on the career path that he or she will soon have. Being exposed to actual research makes one check his or her compatibility to the chosen field.
Research work also provides hands-on experience, which is essential if one wants to become a productive academic. With this hands-on learning, you can put into practice all the theories and facts you have learned in your classes. Translating the technical stuff to real work will definitely be beneficial on the part of the RA.
Financial rewards
Although it is a fact that being a research assistant does not earn one a hefty amount of money, it still allows a person to earn by doing actual work while learning at the same time.
Enriched learning
Acting as a professor’s research assistant, one gets the opportunity to read original manuscripts or materials which are not usually open to the public. Having read information from the original source provides better insight on a particular field or subject.
Other benefits
Studying in a different state may cost more compared to state locals. Non-locals working as research assistants may be granted reduced rates in return for their services.
Well-performing research assistants may eventually receive scholarship proposals from professors or universities in honor of the services and hard work that had been duly given for a particular work. This is not rarely practiced as universities and those from the academe recognizes true potential in students.
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While there may be valid reasons for pursuing graduate school, the fact that there are wrong ones still remains. Some of these reasons may sound noble and genuine but no one’s to say which is which exactly. The bottom line is that if the motives aren’t that of meeting career goals, the very reasons for entering graduate school may just as well be sham.
Over the years, people who graduate from graduate schools encountered common problems that have eventually become too chronic.
Job dissatisfaction
Graduates of MBAs, MAs, and other graduate programs are supposed to have better leverage when it comes to dealing with work. There are still people who failed to fully assess their circumstances or situation and suddenly just decided to pursue a graduate degree on a whim without reviewing their study options. These people ended up having jobs that they don’t exactly feel comfortable with.
Peer pressure
Committing to the idea of going to graduate school just because somebody else raised the thought could win you a ticket to wasting precious time as well as money. Your friends are there to share triumphs with, not as deciding elements on what you should take or do.
Being unemployed for a long period
In the long term, it may better for you to find employment that you are interested in rather than be accepted into graduate school. Success is not measured by the number of degrees that you earn but on other aspects – the people that you help, the happiness your job gives you, and the quality of your life in general.
Being forced by parents and other authorities
Yes, your parents have good intentions for you, but ultimately, it is you who will decide on what’s in store for your future – whether you to graduate school or not.
Financial rewards
It holds true that gaining an MA or an MBA would allow you to earn more digits as compared to having just a basic degree. A lot of people end up failing graduate school simply because greed is their drive. Live the moment, don’t count your blessings when they’re not yet there.
Entering graduate school is something that should be given great thought. Rushing would only merit a person failure beyond compare.
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Coping with stress is quite tricky when you’re not used to having it around. Specially in graduate school, having too much to juggle can beat the life out of you unless you’re able to make things work. Although you were able to go through college despite the undergrad pressure, being in graduate school offers a lot more problems.
Manage your time wisely
If you do not know how to manage your time, the demands of both your schoolwork and personal life will definitely give you stress. To avoid stress altogether, know some points on time management. Here are some of them:
* If you find yourself with free time on your hands, then do something productive with it. Start outlining for that paper due next week. Or, do your groceries. This way, you have more time for tasks that are more demanding.
* Weigh which things need attending to immediately and avoid wasting time by committing more to hanging out than accommodating schoolwork. Set a timetable so that you will not neglect anything. Know your priorities.
* If you put in too many things to do in your calendar, you may end up not finishing anything at all. Learn how to politely decline to events that have no bearing on your success as a graduate student.
Keep yourself physically fit
One way to keep fit is by exercising for a few minutes each day. Even though you spend a small part of your day exercising and you feel that you could’ve used that time studying, don’t worry about it. Exercise actually allows your body to be better prepared for the demands of school. When you are fit, you are more productive in anything that you do. Another way to stay healthy is to not skip meals.
Many graduate students think that they have pull all-nighters just to be able to prepare themselves for an exam or to finish that paper. If you’ve managed your time wisely, you don’t need to pull all-nighters. If you do decide to pull an all-nighter, stay away from too much caffeine and sugar. Eat foods rich in proteins and complex carbohydrates; these foods will keep your body alert all night.
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In graduate school, you need all the help you can get when it comes to furthering your education. You need your professors’ insights and your colleagues’ ideas to help improve your academic aptitude. One effective way to enrich your knowledge is to join a well-organized study group.
Limit active members
In a study group session, it is important that each member is given the chance to voice out his or her thoughts. The only way to do that is to limit your study group only to a few people. It is, after all, a study group and not a lecture class.
Avoid unproductive members
The main purpose of holding study group sessions is to learn together. It is about discussing points and sharing ideas, not tutoring other members. Having unproductive members in the study group not only slows the process of enriching academic knowledge, but it also beats the purpose of holding study group sessions.
Choose good leaders
To ensure organization in the study group, you must choose a good leader. A good leader is the one responsible for overseeing sessions, organizing meetings, and designating topics.
Schedule regular meetings
Every study group session must be scheduled accordingly. Make sure that your meetings are set on dates when everyone is free. To do this, you must coordinate schedules with the other members of the study group.
Organize regular agenda
Organization is very important in study group sessions. Time is of essence in graduate school and you have to take advantage of your free time. It is best to have a set agenda every session so everybody can anticipate the topics to be discussed.
Form study groups
If you haven’t received any invitations yet, then form your own study group. It is not that hard to form a study group – you just need to find other students who are still waiting for study group invites.
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