Selecting Graduate Programs

What Kind of Program?

A place like Maryville College doesn't have a wide variety of majors. But this doesn't mean that you are stuck for graduate school options. As with the job hunt, the humanities major has a lot of choices. Aside from the obvious ones, there is classics, area studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, business, information science, law, and even medicine. Most medical schools have no trouble admitting liberal arts students, and some prefer them. If you're interested in more than one area, there's no reason not to apply for more than one kind of program.

Picking a Program

Graduate school admissions deadlines usually begin around the start of the calendar year. For that reason, and because financial aid deadlines are often soon after, it's good to make program choices as soon as you can, and make them well. The strategy to picking a program is much the same as picking an undergraduate school:

Always pick at least one program you know will accept you;
Pick a few programs where the odds are pretty good;
And pick a couple of long-shot programs. Heck, you might get in, and why not?

Don't worry about application fees. Just think of them as part of tuition, and they will seem miniscule.

Personal Strategy

There is another element to the equation. While undergraduate curricula are often standardized, grad schools can be idiosyncratic. One school's methodology might prevail over another, the graduation requirements might be different, or the overall philosophies might be different.

With that in mind, be sure to find a particular reason to apply for each program. If you don't have one, you might be wasting a lot of money and/or a lot of time. Also, remember you are picking a program, and not the university itself. An otherwise lackluster school might have a wonderful program in your area, and a famous school might have a bad program, or no program at all. Think about your career objectives, and find which programs will help the most.

Have a particular focus in mind. It might be something from your senior thesis or other project, but get an idea of what you particularly want to study.
Find people in the field who share your focus. Find out where and if they have faculty appointments, and do some research on them. The Internet ought to make this a really easy task. If you find a scholar you're dying to study with, email him or her and express your interest. If you end up getting in, you might already have a mentor on the faculty.
If you already have a school in mind, check to see who the faculty are, and who teaches in your area of focus.
If you can, find someone who knows the program better than you do. Ask questions not only about the quality of the program, but also about the politics involved. Be sure you know what you're getting into. Some programs are internally very competitive for assistantships, PhD programs, etc. Other programs are nurturing and collaborative, and students actually help each other out.
Funding is also important. Find out your chances for an assistantship. Some programs offer lots of funding, others very little.
Don't pick grad schools based solely on rankings. Any information available on a program is probably useful, but these rankings often reflect a school's reputation, rather than the actual quality of the program. In any case, your criteria will probably be different from the ranker's.
Some PhD programs last the better part of a decade, so find out know what you're getting into before you start.

Grad School Links

Peterson's Grad Channel: This site allows searching for grad programs in various disciplines by state and by institution. It contains most of the information in the Peterson's printed guides, and it provides links to program home pages, information request forms, and even online applications. It also has information about admissions exams. Definitely not the last place to go, but probably the first.
America's Best Graduate Schools (US News): Once again, don't pay exclusive attention to these rankings. These are based on polls taken among high-placed faculty in the field. Since faculty are often biased towards their alma maters, schools without doctoral programs are often underrated. But this site also contains help with choosing a program, taking entrance exams, and getting financial aid.
Applying to Graduate School (Mt Holyoke): Advice from a liberal arts college similar to Maryville.
Applying to Graduate and Professional Schools (William and Mary): More advice for liberal arts students.

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This page created by Christopher Ryland 25 August 2000. Last updated 25 August 2000.