ADVICE

The Gentle Guide for Applying to

Graduate Schools
By David Shorter APRIL 12, 2017

I
’m wrapping up my eighth and final year
as chair of graduate admissions in my
department. Along the way I’ve learned a
few lessons that seem worth sharing with the
many readers who advise students applying to
graduate school in the humanities or social
Pete Ryan for The Chronicle
sciences.

Perhaps the most important piece of advice for undergraduates planning to take this step
is the most obvious: Start early. But for the focused and determined applicants, a
thoroughly considered approach can be managed with forethought and method.

The following suggestions will hopefully provide a gentler strategy — gentle on the
applicants and on those of us charged with reading their applications. I do not mean
"gentle" in relation to the applicants themselves or their chosen research interests: Even
radical work can be planned in ways that are mindful of everyone’s health and ease. Feel
free to share the following tips with your students.

Laying the groundwork. Early in the calendar year (ideally from January to March) start
planning for the two to four letters of recommendation that you will need by year’s end,
from people who can speak about your work (not biography) in detail. A clear majority of
the letters should be from academics. At least one should speak to your promise in the
field(s) to which you are applying.
Only by starting this work early can you have a quarter or a semester taking courses or
independent studies with those teachers who could write great letters on your behalf.
Also, these are the months to ask yourself if you should take a "test prep" course for the
GRE.

From January through June of the application year, secure your working relationships
with your letter writers. Demonstrate for them clear evidence of your thinking, writing,
self-motivation, originality, commitment, and scholarly promise. As faculty, we rarely will
ask you to do that up front, and yet those are the qualities on which we will be evaluating
you. If you’ve done your job on this front, when we sit down to write you a letter of
reference, we will be able to see that you helped us write glowingly, and with specificity.

Perhaps the most important preparation for applying also comes this first half of the year:
Map out your ideal possible futures, asking yourself how it feels to imagine yourself in
one field or another.

The Ph.D. career path requires devotion, and often a few decades spent working on a set
of research questions. Make a rank-ordered list of different versions of your project,
working in different disciplines and with a range of theses. If you do not like reading and
writing — a lot — then start looking at studio arts, performance, or other such training.

Keep in mind that these paths also benefit from grant writing, almost continuously. In
other words, ask yourself if you enjoy this preliminary stage of writing, research, and
rewriting. Now is the time to confirm that you would like a life spent with those activities
as your primary responsibilities.

Narrowing your options. From June to August, you have three main tasks.

First, using that rank-ordered list of your "ideal future" as a guide, investigate
departments that offer training in those areas. Search for institutions that focus on
the professional field, geographic region, culture group, methods, and/or languages
necessary for your ideal projects. See what other resources might exist near those
campuses: populations, cultural centers, archives, and institutes. Make a list of those
places. And I suggest that you apply to whatever programs interest you regardless of
 cost. Financial concerns can be more fully considered once all of your options are on
the table.
Second, during the summer months, make notes about readings that excite you in
your area. You can of course be excited or challenged without being in exact
agreement with the authors. Who are those scholars? Where do they teach? Have
they written other works that suggest they might have moved on to other primary
research topics? Make a list of their professional email addresses and programs
where they have appointments. Here is where you read tons and write out your
rank-ordered list again. The point is to be current in your knowledge of who is
actively working in research areas that interest you.
Third, using your evolving lists, determine if any of those places require GRE scores.
Register for exams with enough time for the scores to arrive before the application
deadlines. In my department, for example, if even one element of the package does
not arrive by the due date, the application is marked "incomplete" and review is
deferred. It bears repeating: Never give an admissions reviewer a reason, no matter
how small, to evaluate your application as unprofessional.

Searching for potential advisers. From August to September, email the scholars who are
your most probable future advisers and ask in a succinct manner: (1) Are they expecting
to continue their work in the areas you find relevant? And (2) do they expect to be
working with graduate students in the coming years?

Those emails should not be more than four or five sentences long. Don’t attach any
documents. Don’t ask if the professor would like to work with you or is planning to take
sabbatical, retire, or change jobs. Avoid sending them your written work or CV, or
anything more than a sentence or two accentuating your interests.

Nor should you be writing doctoral programs to ask if you would be a good fit for them.
Either the methods outlined above or the departments’ websites will help you answer
that question on your own. At any rate, that is a matter determined by the actual
application-review process.
The idea here is to simply focus on those places that are feasible and worth your
application labor and the university’s application fee. And on that note, if applicable, you
should be submitting your requests at this same time to the graduate schools or
admissions staff members inquiring how to have your application fees waived.

Late summer and early fall are also the times to contact your recommenders to ask if they
are able to write you strong, positive letters of reference. Let them know you will be
proactive in getting them any documents they need to write the letter — for example,
final drafts of your application materials and copies of your previous work. Confirm the
minimum amount of lead time they need for reference requests.

Now is also the time to ask a couple of your references if they could read a draft of the
"statement of purpose" you have to include in your applications. If none of your letter
writers are available to review your final application materials, enlist a friend or another
faculty member to be your editor.

Most programs do not favor campus visits from prospective students before they have
been accepted. Campus resources are already taxed with current students. Some places
do not want to privilege those applicants who can afford to travel or those who are local.
Keep in mind: You will have plenty of time after you are admitted to visit the department
and talk over questions of fit.

The application process is a standardized opportunity to showcase your research

interests, experiences, and work samples. Sending your work, visiting the department, or
asking for individualized attention before applying will perhaps make you stand out, but
not necessarily in a good way.

Submitting and waiting. Be sure to meet your deadlines. Submit the requested
documents — at the specified length — and do not ask for exceptions. Do not send in
anything but the most perfect final drafts of your materials. Do not ask to resubmit
revised application materials.

Feel free to confirm that your materials were received — assuming that information is not
available online. But do not write afterward to confirm where the department is at in its
application process.
Review processes differ by program. They can take between one month and seven. In my
department, members of the admissions committee have a designated period where we
give your materials close consideration. We will look at your writing skills, your narrative
voice, your knowledge of our fields, and your letters of reference.

Most important, we will consider how you would fit within our department culture with
other students and with our faculty and staff. We often consider how applicants could
form cohesive and complimentary cohorts. Students tend to worry about GRE scores, but
I have never heard of a department that gives them primary weight over other factors. At
this point, with your applications submitted, trust the process.

If you did not gain acceptance at a particular program, keep in mind that departments
can rarely give you specific details as to why. Your reference letters are confidential;
matters of cohort cohesiveness are difficult to describe since they pertain to other
applicants’ research; and we simply lack the time to foster conversations about your
writing skills or preparation. Graduate programs — particularly in the humanities and
arts — are usually forced to concentrate their energies on students who are already in our
programs. But many of us welcome applicants to reapply.

To be sure, the graduate-application process in the humanities and social sciences

mirrors the nature of academic work and life. You find out early on how much reading,
writing, research, and rewriting (editing) are required. If you do not enjoy doing that work
before getting in, you probably will not enjoy it once you are admitted, nor when you are
paid to do it as a professor.

Likewise, the method of planning work slowly over months in preparation for a distant
deadline will be a lifelong responsibility in academia. You will be constantly rewarded, at
least in terms of health, by not waiting until the last minute.

In both the application process and in an scholarly career, your passion for the work will
have to take precedence over many other considerations, including location. If you feel
that you can only apply to graduate programs in one specific geographic local, remember
that the competitive academic job market favors those who are mobile. I have had stellar
doctoral students limit themselves regionally and then struggle to find a tenure-track job.
I wish that aspect of the academic life was different. But saying you would only live near
the coast, or in a specific state, will greatly limit your chances for employment, and the
same is true for graduate study.

Lastly, much like the profession itself, applying to graduate school can be highly
rewarding. You are choosing to pursue a path that accentuates your contributions to the
world. This phase is a wonderful opportunity to craft your writing voice, to narrow your
range of scholarly interests, and to "put yourself out there" to see where you might end
up being for the next two to seven years.

To foster an application process that is less stressful on everyone involved — including

you — start early and work methodically. Keep in mind that you can control how gentle
(or not) this year can be. One’s years in graduate school can be formative for so much of
one’s life; the process of deciding where you will go, your teachers, and your research
project deserve focused attention. Best of luck.

David Shorter is a professor of culture and performance at the University of California at

Los Angeles. He has served as the chair of admissions for the last eight years and
frequently presents on graduate-school professional development topics.

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