No Guarantees in Applying to Graduate School

July 15, 2008

by Steven Lenhart

We all live in very credentials oriented world. A bachelor’s degree is not as highly valued as it once was, but try to get by without one and you are up for a rude awakening. Still, today, a master’s degree still sets individuals apart. Not everyone planned on going to graduate school when they first enrolled in college. Many return to graduate school after many years absence from college. Some with well developed skills and work experience directly related to the studies in which they want to pursue a Master’s, others going off in entirely new career directions.

In either case, an admissions decision will have to be made on the basis of what evidence you provide to build a case that you will be successful in your studies. In most cases it will be the cumulative educational experience exhibited on your transcript (transcripts) or most recent transcript over and above a standardized test taken on Saturday last December.

An admissions interview may help you to identify how your application will be reviewed and how likely it may or may not be that you will qualify for admission.

I have to admit though, too many factors are taken into account in making an admissions decision to justifying whether one applies to one school or another. And, you can’t decide  based on gut instinct alone.

In the worst scenario you may need to look in a different direction or build a better case for yourself so that (better prepared) you may look to receive a different answer at a later time.  Sometimes, additional evidence such as new coursework completed with better grades can help you do this. I know that this may seem harsh to some, but graduate study is serious stuff. It is certainly no place to learn to write.

So, I guess my advice to those who think they want graduate school but aren’t willing to take the plunge and risk rejection is to apply anyway.

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Posted by Steven Lenhart in About Applying, Admissions. Comments Off

Steven Lenhart is the Dean of Enrollment Services at Metropolitan College of New York.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 8:19 am and is filed under About Applying, Admissions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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