Academics

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I am coming out of undergraduate school, and looking at different graduate schools to obtain a PhD. My parents do not make very much money, and as a full-time student involved in activities and internships, I don’t have a job myself. I am affording undergraduate school right now on loans. How will I afford graduate school, when I will have loans to pay for undergraduate school?

Thank you.

Is your child coping fine with his or her school work? If not, you might want to consider giving your child home tuition to assist him to establish better grades in school. Most of the time, when your child progresses to a higher level of learning; he or she may not be able to catch up with the more complex and faster pacing school work. This is the best time to engage a home tutor for your child.

If your child is struggling in school, he or she may find home tuition very beneficial as it allows him to catch up with the school work. On the other hand, if your child performs academically well, he or she will find that tuition can help them improve their grades even further. This will enable them to break through their own level of excellence.

Therefore, home tuition is suitable no matter whether your child is academically adept or lacking behind in school work. It will definitely be a good choice for you to hire a home tutor for your child.

When you hire a home tutor, make sure that you get one through a reputable agency. When the tutor comes to your house and tutor your child, you can monitor your child’s progress and get any feedback directly from the tutor after every session to find out more about your child’s academic adaptation.

So where can you look for a home tutor? Firstly, you can opt to hire local students with experience in home tutoring. With this option, you will be able to save yourself some money. However, you may run a risk of hiring an ineffective tutor depending on his or her expertise in tutoring.

Another way is to go onto the Internet and look for potential tutors. Nowadays, Internet has make communication between people very easy and convenient. You can go to student forums and discussion threads to look for interested parties who wish to teach. Again, you may run a risk of hiring an ineffective tutor depending on his or her experience.

The best way is to go to your local tuition agency and look for a certified tutor. This option will most likely be more expensive than the previous 2 options because of the credential of the tutors. However, if you manage to find a good tutor for your child, every dollar and cent is worthwhile. These tutors are experienced mentors who have their own methods of teaching, and they can allow your child to learn more things faster and more effectively.

Home tuition is definitely worth considering if you want your child to improve his or her grades in school. Just take note that you should not stress your child too much. Study is important, but he or she needs to get a life too!

Applying to graduate school is a big step in anyone’s life. You’ve probably spent countless hours mulling over your decision, as well as the discipline you would like to focus your studies on. Now it’s time to start applying, which can be incredibly time consuming and stressful, especially if you don’t even know where to begin. While every application is a little different, there a few things that you can always expect to see on your grad school applications. You will have to provide your transcripts and your GRE scores.

GRE’s

The vast majority of graduate programs will require you to take the standardized graduate record exams. If you are applying to medical school you will have to take the medical college admissions test, if you are applying to law school you will have to take the law school admission test and if you are applying to business school you will have to take the graduate management admissions test. These exams are meant to measure your ability to handle graduate level work. The amount of weight placed on your scores heavily depends on your specific school and graduate program, but in general a higher score will increase your likelihood of gaining access to the program you wish to enter.  You should aim to take these exams about a year before you plan to enter graduate school, so plan ahead.

Transcripts

You will have to order transcripts from the registrar’s office of your undergraduate program. While your GPA does hold great importance, the type of classes you took during your undergraduate education is also important. Receiving an A in an astrophysics course will hold a lot more weight than an A for learning to install ebc brakes in your intro mechanics course. Make sure that your transcripts are sealed and certified by your school; otherwise they will not be accepted with your grad school application. You will most likely need to fill out forms far in advance so that you can receive them on time. During the spring semester, most schools receive numerous official transcript requests so it may take a while to process yours.

MBA Podcaster host Bob O’Keefe takes you on a journey to the Silicon Valley to Stanford Graduate School of Business. With an acceptance rate less than 10%, Stanford is considered one of the most selective business schools when it comes to choosing candidates and is one of the top MBA schools in the world. Bob sits down with Linda Abraham of Accepted.com to find out what Stanford is looking for and uncover strategies on tackling Stanford’s application and MBA essays. You will also hear from several Stanford MBA graduates as to why Stanford was the right pick for them and what they learned along the way. Guests Include: -Linda Abraham, Founder & President, Accepted.com admission consulting agency -Mareza Larizadeh, Stanford MBA 2006 Graduate, Founder of Doostang.com online job database -Shan Lyn Ma, Recent Stanford MBA Graduate -Alex Pitt, Recent Stanford MBA Graduate About:MBA Podcaster is your online source for information, insight, and advice on the MBA admissions process. We deliver relevant information and advice through biweekly audio and video segments for those planning to apply for a Master in Business Administration. Topics include strategies for writing MBA essays, preparing for the MBA interview, GMAT prep, MBA careers, business school rankings, the online MBA, Executive MBA programs, MBA scholarships, post-MBA job opportunities and current market trends.

Getting into graduate school takes more than desire and in order to ensure your spot you have to make a lasting impression on the admissions committee. The admissions committee of the graduate school in which you are trying to gain entry to will be looking for promising students who have the ability to become both great graduate students and great professionals in their field once graduate school is over.

Simply knowing what the admissions committee is looking for can help you to better prepare yourself to get into graduate school. While each committee will be looking for certain criteria and characteristics in particular, for the most part you can count on them all looking closely at your:

Undergraduate Grade Point Average or GPA: Admissions committees will look at your overall GPA but especially your last two years of school. It is important to note that the committee will be able to determine what merits a good GPA. Just because one person has a higher GPA than another, doesnt necessarily mean that they will receive precedence. If you have all Bs in advanced classes for example, you can still beat out an applicant with almost all As in lower level classes. The moral of this story is to choose your classes wisely.

Graduate Record Exam or GRE Score: Where the GPA can vary from university to university the GRE is standardized. Therefore it is easy for the admissions committee to accurately compare you to your peers in this area. However, the actual review board of the graduate school you are looking at will determine on the amount of weight that is given to the GRE. Some will use it as a cutoff point to help eliminate applicants and others will look to the GRE as an offset to a weak GPA. Having strong GRE will certainly help you, just in varying degrees.

Letters of Recommendation: These are of utmost importance because they will give the admissions committee a look into the person behind the GPA and GRE scores. For this reason you need to choose who you have writing your recommendations very wisely. Having a professor that is well known by the committee will certainly carry more weight than having a professor who is a relative unknown. Likewise if you are getting a letter of recommendation within the field that you are going to pursue. If the person is a foremost expert then it will bold well for you. Whoever it is that writes your recommendation, be sure that they truly know you on somewhat of a personal level so that they can give an accurate depiction of you in their recommendation.

Personal Statement: Also called the statement of purpose, the admissions essay, and sometimes the personal goals statement. Whatever you want to call it you need to ace it. This represents your one chance to introduce yourself to the admissions committee. This is the one place that they will be able to learn facts about you that are not provided anywhere else and thus this is your chance to make yourself leap off the pages and make a lasting impression.

Good grades, good test scores, glowing recommendations, and a personal statement that speaks volumes are your key to achieving your goal of getting into graduate school. Because graduate school is such a serious endeavor, you should take no part of the application process in stride and give your all in every category in order to give yourself the best chance possible at getting admitted to the graduate school of your choosing.

Let’s say I want to apply to Occupational Therapy and Public Health graduate programs at the same college. Would the departments know that I applied for another program? Would it look bad?

I need to know how to get recruited and dont tell me to play for a club team because I cant

Medicine and Dentistry Graduate School at Queen Mary, University of London

As what the title says, you’ve only just begun as you browse through sample graduate school essays.  Graduate school is different from college life: it has less of the partying—if there’s any at all—and more of the reading, studying, reporting, studying, doing research, studying, writing papers, and as if it hasn’t been said enough… studying.  Oftentimes, graduate students drop out of their studies not because they cannot make the grades.  More than that, the reason for this “mortality rate” in graduate school is the stress that comes with graduate studies.

Why the selection process is very “selective”

The main purpose of the admission requirements for a graduate program is not to give you a hard time—although this may be partly true.  The reason is that the admission committee wants to know just how much of the pressures you can take as a graduate student.  This is not something that your college GPA and the GRE can directly assess.  Because of this, your graduate school admission essay should be able to accomplish that.  How and where do you start? If you have been reading through the sample graduate school essays that you were able to find on the Internet, you will notice that those who succeeded in getting into the program and university of their choice always show their determination to fulfill their goals and passion for their field.

What things to look for in sample graduate school essays

How do the writers present their philosophy and motivation for pursuing a graduate degree? A good essay should tell how a socially relevant event influenced a writer’s decision to earn his or her master’s or PhD.  For instance, an applicant for a master’s program in finance may talk about the global economic crisis and the corresponding recession.  He or she may even add an analysis by saying that it is an issue of trust between banking and other institutions, which reflects his or her principles and reasoning capacity.  Aside from that, what do these writers say about being able to fulfill the demands of graduate studies? Of course, it is not enough to just say, “I can do this.” Your claim has to be supported by a review of your past experiences.  Note that some sample essays tell how the writer has faced a major disappointment in life, such as being passed up for a promotion.  Instead of calling attention to the reasons why he or she was not promoted, what you will find is that the writer’s ability to bounce back from a setback is highlighted.  More likely, the essay relates how well he or she handled the issue by keeping a positive attitude and working doubly hard on his or her weak areas.

There is nothing scary about graduate school if you have what it takes to push through.  If you have the right reasons for pursuing a graduate degree, it is more likely that you would have the staying power required.  Know how to maintain balance, so you can have a work-play rhythm that will keep you from getting burned out.