What they won’t tell you about choosing the right graduate institution

graduate admissions strategy
By Jinoh

If you're reading this post, you are probably an experienced student. You’ve overcome standardized tests, have had plenty of extracurricular experience, and perhaps even mastered your interview skills. However, one seemingly challenge awaits: choosing the right graduate institution for you. While this challenge seems innocent enough, there is the daunting decision of choosing an institution that will shape an important period of your life.

When choosing a graduate institution, many online resources will often repeat the importance of the following qualities: rankings, prestige, and potential career options. While these institutional aspects are undoubtedly important, I have found that for myself, other factors have played a bigger role in the quality of my education and my success.

In this blog post, I’ll share which factors I have found to be uniquely important when choosing the right graduate institution.

1. Location, Location, Location

If you are about to matriculate into a graduate program, you are most likely a young adult in your twenties or thirties. While the quality of your education and your life at school is important, your life outside of school is equally, if not more, important. That being said, the location of your graduate institution can be very important in determining the quality of your day to day life. Before considering graduate program rankings or prestige, you want to ask yourself some key questions:

  • How important is the geographic distance of the graduate institution to your current support networks (friends and family)?
  • Do you prefer city life or rural life?
  • How affordable is the city your graduate institution is in?

As you progress through your twenties and thirties, maintaining and using your support network becomes ever so important. I have found it critical to keep in touch with friends and family, and find that the process of doing so even helps me progress through my graduate career. Additionally, the city surrounding and affordability help determine what your lifestyle is like outside of your studies (trust me, you aren’t going to be spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week devoted to school). Think about what elements of your lifestyle are important for you, and how the location of your future graduate institution can be most compatible.

2. Program Culture

Another important aspect of choosing the right graduate institution is the culture of the program. Admittedly, this may be hard to ascertain prior to attending, but through program visits and interviews, most programs offer a small glimpse. You can respectfully ask current students and faculty for their thoughts as well.

When assessing program culture, you generally want to be aware of two factors: what the student culture is like, and how closely the faculty are integrated with the program. For the former, you want to be on the lookout for any personality red flags that may exist in the student body. For the latter, you want to keep a close eye on how much the faculty members you interact with are invested in the program you are considering. This may be the most useful factor in determining potential career options, despite what online rankings may say.

3. A Certain Gut Feeling

After carefully weighing the above factors, plus a variety of other qualities you’ve gleaned are important from other resources, one program may still stick out to you, despite what anyone else recommends. I’m here to tell you: this is perfectly okay! Sometimes there’s an intangible quality about a place that draws us to it; I know there was a little bit of that for me when I chose my graduate institution. Whatever your gut feelings tell you, have confidence in those instincts and things will work out!

Jinoh attended Columbia University, where he graduated with a Neuroscience and Behavior major with a 3.8 GPA and departmental honors. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Neurobiology at Harvard.

Comments

topicTopics
academics study skills MCAT medical school admissions SAT college admissions expository writing English MD/PhD admissions writing LSAT GMAT strategy GRE physics chemistry math biology graduate admissions ACT law school admissions interview prep test anxiety language learning academic advice MBA admissions premed personal statements homework help career advice AP exams creative writing MD study schedules Common Application summer activities test prep history computer science philosophy organic chemistry secondary applications supplements economics PSAT admissions coaching grammar mathematics research law statistics & probability psychology 1L ESL CARS SSAT covid-19 dental admissions legal studies logic games reading comprehension USMLE engineering Spanish calculus parents Latin verbal reasoning DAT PhD admissions case coaching excel mentorship political science AMCAS French Linguistics MBA coursework Tutoring Approaches academic integrity chinese medical school Anki DO English literature Social Advocacy admissions advice algebra astrophysics biochemistry business classics diversity statement genetics geometry kinematics mental health presentations quantitative reasoning skills study abroad time management work and activities IB exams ISEE MD/PhD programs STEM adjusting to college algorithms art history artificial intelligence athletics business skills careers cold emails data science functions gap year international students internships letters of recommendation logic mechanical engineering poetry resume science social sciences software engineering tech industry technical interviews trigonometry 2L 3L AAMC Academic Interest DMD EMT FlexMed Fourier Series Greek Health Professional Shortage Area Italian Lagrange multipliers London MD vs PhD MMI Montessori National Health Service Corps Pythagorean Theorem Python Sentence Correction Step 2 TMDSAS Taylor Series Zoom acids and bases amino acids analysis essay architecture argumentative writing art art and design schools art portfolios biomedicine brain teaser campus visits cantonese capacitors capital markets cell biology central limit theorem centrifugal force chemical engineering chess chromatography class participation climate change clinical experience community service constitutional law consulting cover letters curriculum dementia demonstrated interest dental school dimensional analysis distance learning electric engineering electricity and magnetism enrichment escape velocity european history executive function finance first generation student freewriting fun facts genomics graphing harmonics health policy history of medicine history of science hybrid vehicles hydrophobic effect ideal gas law induction infinite information sessions institutional actions integrated reasoning intern investing investment banking lab reports linear algebra linear maps mandarin chinese matrices mba medical physics meiosis microeconomics mitosis music music theory neurology neuroscience office hours operating systems organization pedagogy phrase structure rules plagiarism potential energy pre-dental proofs pseudocode psych/soc qualifying exams quantum mechanics relativity