Choosing a Graduate School
What You Need to Know Before You Apply
Graduate work is becoming increasingly essential as a credential for employment opportunity in many biological sciences. To successfully enter a graduate program of your choice and to be successful in that program usually requires thought and action on your part long before the time to apply for entry. It is our intent to inform you here about the nature of graduate school such that armed with this knowledge your effort will be more successful. Most of the examples used here will be of the graduate program in biology at ASU.
No graduate program can meet the interests of all potential graduate students. You have the obligation to examine the program offerings of each institution and to find programs that fit your need. Small graduate programs, such as that in Biology at ASU, have limitations. Large institutions typically offer a much greater variety of graduate programs than are found in smaller regional colleges and universities. Nevertheless, excellent graduate programs can be found at smaller schools.
You should always attempt to get into the best program available for your interests and that suits your needs. The reputation of your graduate program can have an influence on your career success. In some cases, who you know or the fame of your graduate school remains of near equal importance to what you know.
At most smaller universities every graduate faculty member teaches some subjects at the undergraduate level in which they do not direct graduate research. Directing graduate research in a particular field requires a level of expertise in methodology and literature beyond that required to teach a good undergraduate course in the subject. For example, if every undergraduate course offered in biology at ASU were taught by a research-level expert in the field, the number of faculty in the department would be three to four times larger than at present. Furthermore many research areas require equipment and/or funds not locally available. Do not use the undergraduate catalog course listing at any institution as a guide to what can be studied there at the graduate level.
Some universities offer separate graduate programs in science education, which can include a specialization in a particular science like biology. The Biology Department at Angelo State University has developed a similar program in which students graduate with a M.S. in Biology with Emphasis in Science Education. For this program, students do most of the same coursework as the general M.S. in Biology program. However, their research project involves some aspect of current science education issues and also requires coursework in the School of Education. Students interested in this program may contact Dr. Connie Russell or Dr. Russell Wilke for more information concerning this program.
Some larger graduate institutions allow graduate students to enter a Ph.D. program directly from their Bachelor's degree, without completing the M.S. degree. Your chance to do this depends upon the university to which you are applying and your academic record, GRE scores, and your performance on a qualifying exam administered early in your graduate program. If all of these factors are not in your favor, then you might need to first complete an M.S. degree. Smaller graduate schools do not offer the Ph.D. There are no Ph.D. programs at ASU. In biology at ASU, two graduate options exist; a non-thesis Master of Science degree and a thesis Master of Science degree, the latter is more commonly recommended for those considering going on to a Ph.D. but available to any qualified student. More will be explained about this. The level of higher education needed varies with the career, and that relationship changes with time. As a general rule (with many exceptions), opportunity for a science career in advanced academia or research is more likely with a Ph.D., whereas in much of industry a M.S. might well be sufficient. Before making a decision on how far you plan to advance your formal education, look into current industry demands. When Ph.D.'s become common in a field, they often have competitive advantage in industry jobs formerly requiring only M.S. degrees. Teaching positions in junior colleges have usually been filled by those with the M.S. as a terminal degree, although there is some indication of a growing trend for Ph.D.s to teach at all levels of higher education. The Ph.D. apparently is becoming sufficiently common to compete with the M.S. degree for junior college positions.
Ask an ASU biology faculty member. If your graduate interest is in a field taught at the undergraduate level in this department, then the teacher of that course probably can suggest several good schools for you to consider.
Examine guides in the reference section of the library or surf the Internet. Almost all colleges and universities now have web pages, although some provide distressingly little information of value.
Call or write universities; they will be delighted to send you information packets at no cost to you! Be sure to ask for both general admission requirements and for specific programs in the particular science department to which you would be applying. Many schools have separate applications for admission into the graduate school in general and for the particular department.
If your interest is in research, then it is very important for you to consider the individual graduate faculty members at each school who are working in areas of your interest. The importance of this point cannot be overemphasized! This is the major difference in the selection process of a graduate versus an undergraduate school. During your selection process for undergraduate programs, it was very unlikely that you considered individual faculty in the department. You investigated the school, as a whole, and perhaps this department as a whole. You made the logical presumption that the individual faculty would be available and competent to teach biology and the expected common subdisciplines of the field.
In the selection of a graduate program, however, you must consider the individual faculty members who might chair your committee and direct your graduate research. Graduate thesis work involves an intensive one-on-one relationship with a faculty member who guides you and assists you in your research. It does you no good to select an institution and a program and then find when you arrive, that no one on that faculty shares your specific interest or will be able to work with you.
How do you determine if faculty are present who share your interests? The best way is to get a list of the faculty from a catalog or web site and search for publications of those who share your interests. You can determine much of what you need to know about individual faculty from what each publishes of his/her own research.
In our opinion, the least important consideration in selecting a school is its geographic location. Selecting a graduate school because it is close to the ski slopes, is in a warm climate, or is close to home may leave you educationally disappointed and no closer to attaining your career goals.
An important consideration is a school's offer of financial assistance. Many graduate schools will not accept students for whom they have no financial assistance. Those schools want their graduate students to be full time - total immersion. They are not interested in having graduate students who must limit their participation because of outside employment. At those schools, successful applicants are offered teaching assistantships or research assistantships. Other schools will allow entry into their programs without financial assistance, however, all other factors being equal, an offer with financial support is a much better option.
If your life affords you options, then apply to the best graduate schools that have the program you want, have individual faculty available with your specific interests, and offer financial assistance. If you are limited in options or if you simply prefer smaller programs, then, at the least, pick a school with the program you want and with a faculty member who shares your interests. You may have to borrow money or work part time to make it if the school does not have financial assistance for you.