January 2006

Parent to parent: Preparing for graduate school

By Mom Marion

When my daughter was a sophomore in college, she started talking about strange plans, and when she was a senior she started following them.

The main thing I noticed was her puzzling desire to write a senior honors thesis. Why pass up some perfectly good classes to struggle with an 80-page paper? What would she get from all this solitary work, except an asterisk on her diploma?

She also signed up to study a language, something she was not likely to enjoy, since classes were scheduled at the breathtakingly early hour of 9 a.m.

She explained that she was doing all this because she wanted to apply to graduate school.

That part I understood.

Unlike her dad and me, our daughter is a real scholar. The activities of a graduate student -- and those of the college professor she wants to become -- are her true passions: reading, researching, writing and teaching. I was not surprised she was thinking of a doctorate in history, but I had no idea that she would begin planning so soon.

How to qualify

It turns out that she did not have to prepare as an undergraduate -- some students do not -- but it pays to start early. A student has a better chance of getting funding, not to mention placement in the graduate school of her choice, if she focuses on her objective by the end of junior year.

The reasons become obvious when you learn about the application process for graduate school.

Students need to qualify themselves in three ways:

• First, the student must achieve an outstanding grade point average, at least a 3.0. Poor performance as a freshman is no disaster, but a student must show evidence of focus and maturity by sophomore or junior year. Fortunately, admissions committees concentrate on grades in the major field and those achieved in the final years of college.
• Second, the student must take qualifying tests, such as the Graduate Record Exam. The GRE is a test you can study for, and if the student plans to go straight from college to graduate school, it is best to study during the summer between junior and senior year.
• Finally, the student needs strong letters of recommendation from teachers, mentors and advisers that describe the young researcher as dedicated, focused and smart. My daughter knew that an honors thesis would not only be good practice for a doctoral dissertation, but would also bring her into extended contact with a faculty adviser. Other students do internships, volunteer in a lab or just visit during office hours a lot.

When to start

During my daughter's senior year, I learned that parental nail-biting does not end when your child gets into college. I followed my daughter through the highs and lows of campus visits, essay writing and weighty interviews with potential mentors. She decided that if the "right" school accepted her, she would go straight to graduate school.

However, it is neither wise, nor essential, for every student to follow that path.

Many professors recommend that students take a break before graduate school, giving them time for employment, extra study, internships -- and soul searching. Getting a doctorate is a huge undertaking, and the dropout rate is frightening: as high as 50 percent in some nonscience fields. Master's degree programs can also be stressful, but are mercifully short (one to two years).

Whether your student plans to take a break, I have learned the most important advice parents can offer: "Get to know faculty members while you're in college."

UC Davis is blessed with teachers who take time to mentor undergraduates, but they will not know a student is thinking about graduate school unless the student approaches them.

Junior year is not too early to begin.

This column was first published in the January 2005 issue of the Aggie Family Pack newsletter.

Newspaper columnist Marion Franck is the mother of a second-year graduate student and a college junior. A former lecturer at UC Davis, she is co-author, with UC Davis Associate Chancellor Sally Springer, of Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know About Getting Into College.

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