Your Grad School Application Timeline
The ability to plan efficiently is a skill that you’ll use throughout your entire graduate program, beginning with your grad school application. Starting your applications early not only provides you with more time to review and perfect your application but also can increase
your odds of being admitted. Typically, applications for entry to most PhD programs during fall semester are due in December or January, and applications for entry during spring semester are due June or July.The following timeline was designed with additional time built in to rectify any unforeseen circumstances, such as having to retake a test, and is intended to be used as a general guideline for any program, so you may make some changes depending on your unique needs.
12 Months Before Applications Are Due
Start narrowing down your choices of schools. Whether you’ve been collecting graduate program brochures for the past couple of years or you just started toying with the idea of continuing your education, now is the time to start specifically focusing on which graduate schools have programs that are right for you. Also, now is also the time to take a practice test. Depending on what your desired program requires, you could be required to take the GRE, MCAT, GMAT, LSAT, or DAT. You can use the score from the practice test to determine how much preparation you’ll need before you are ready to take the actual test.
8 Months Before Applications Are Due
Now is the time to start evaluating the schools in which you’re interested. Request information from them online, and consult with former professors, classmates, or family members who can recommend good programs or offer advice. At this stage of your preparations for graduate school, it may be helpful to start a spreadsheet of potential schools and to note grad school application requirements and deadlines on the spreadsheet. Start thinking about which faculty members you could ask for letters of recommendation. The faculty members whom you choose to ask should be those who think highly of you and who know you fairly well.
6 Months Before Applications Are Due
Buy a book or study guide to help prepare for your test, or sign up for a test preparation course. Register to take your test in a couple of months so that you will have the opportunity to retake it if necessary.
4 Months Before Applications Are Due
Take the test that your program requires, and, if necessary, sign up to retake the test. Carefully review every application you are going to complete, and write your first drafts of your graduate admissions essays. Remember to ask for feedback from faculty members or career/admissions counselors at your school, and revise your essay as needed. Additionally, start asking faculty members for letters of recommendation. To help the faculty members write your letters, you should provide the faculty members whom you ask with copies of your transcripts, sample recommendation letters, recommendation forms from each program to which you are applying, your admissions essays, and anything else the faculty members request. Finally, get a head start researching sources of financial aid.
3 Months Before Applications Are Due
Do some research on the faculty from your prospective schools, and read their publications to see whose research interests and career goals align with your own. Students interested in research activities that don’t correspond to the research interests of professors at the desired schools may be less likely to be admitted. Follow up with faculty members whom you have asked to write letters of recommendation for you. Ask family, friends, and faculty for feedback on your personal statements, and revise as needed.
2 Months Before Applications Are Due
Request that your official transcripts from your undergraduate institutions be sent to each program to which you apply. Reach out to students and professors at your desired schools to make connections, and arrange to visit the campuses if possible.
1 Month Before Applications Are Due
Check due dates for each application to ensure that you’re still on target. Apply for fellowships, grants, scholarships, or any other sources of financial aid.
Month Applications Are Due
Complete and submit grad school application forms for each program, and remember to keep copies for your own records. Most graduate schools accept online applications, but if you do have any hard copy forms of applications, then scan them into your computer, and type in the fields for a neater appearance. Finalize all essays and statements of purpose, and verify that all letters of recommendation have been sent. Most schools send emails or postcards to confirm that they’ve received your application materials. If you don’t receive some kind of confirmation notices from the schools to which you have applied, then contact admissions offices to ensure that your applications have been received before the deadlines.
1 Month After Applications Are Due
Start preparing for admissions interviews. Research common interview questions, and practice your answers. Consider what questions you want to ask them.
2 to 3 Months After Applications Are Due
Wait.
4 Months After Applications Are Due
Discuss acceptances and rejections with faculty members or career/admissions counselors at your school to help you with your decision. Whether you choose to accept or decline any offers of admission, you should notify all programs to which you applied of your final decision.
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