Timeframes for Graduate Study

The summer between your junior and senior year is an appropriate time to begin to think seriously about graduate school. Many programs have application deadlines in December or January for admission the following autumn, and it usually takes several weeks to put a sound application together. You need to be prepared in September of your senior year if you wish to enter a graduate program the semester after receiving your BSFS.

Many students ask for advice about the advantages of beginning graduate school right after finishing college versus taking a year or two off in between. Although the duration of graduate programs (usually 2 years for a master's degree, 3 years for a law degree, and 4-8 years for a doctorate) gives students an incentive to begin as early as possible, it is wise to postpone applying until you have settled on a definite project you wish to pursue. To some degree, one can float through undergraduate studies in the United States without making a personal commitment to a field. This approach does not work at the graduate level, which is much more focused on building expertise in a particular subject. For example, a student interested in development in Latin America might wish to take a master's degree in Latin American studies followed by a Ph.D. in economics. This program would probably take a minimum of 6-7 years to complete and would require strong personal motivation. Investing this kind of time in graduate studies (especially in the Ph.D.) makes sense only if you have a true commitment to the field and enjoy the academic work for its own sake.

A few people are clear about their intellectual projects almost from the beginning of their college careers; most of us, however, go through a certain amount of indecision and soul-searching about where our intellectual and professional interests lie. It is not at all uncommon for students to be curious about a number of different things and to be unsure about how to choose a focus. The best way to come to terms with this situation, and to begin to think about the possible path from graduate study to career, is to talk to faculty members and other advisors at the university, including members of the Dean's Office staff.

There are other good reasons for some students to postpone application to graduate school. Some people choose to work for a few years in order to pay off college debts or to accumulate a financial cushion to see them through their graduate years. Given the high cost of graduate education, this is often a wise policy. Students who have performed adequately but not brilliantly in college may have a better chance of admission to some programs if they allow themselves a couple of years to mature and acquire useful experience before applying. This is especially true in the case of professionally-oriented master's degrees and law schools.

Many serious students come to a disciplinary interest late in their undergraduate career, or even shortly after finishing their degree. For those students it is often advisable to return to school on a part-time basis to take several courses in the area in which they contemplate applying for a graduate degree. This is because the professors and administrators who read graduate applications will rarely take a gamble on students with no proven track record in the subject they wish to pursue. Because graduate study is a long and arduous undertaking, even those with adequate preparation and vivid understanding of what they are getting into risk a loss of interest or shift of focus. Graduate schools do not want to invest time and fellowship money in those who cannot demonstrate high probability of success in the program to which they are applying.