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— by K. L. Cook, RDP Associate Dean
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is graduate school important?
Does Prescott College prepare you for graduate school?
Can graduate school be free?
How is grad school different from undergrad?
What criteria should students use to choose graduate schools?
What is the application process?
How do you find out info about different grad programs?
What about graduate tests? GRE's, LSAT's, etc.?
What about low-residency programs (including PC's program)?
Will a "terminal" degree kill you?
Recommended Websites
Why is graduate school important?
Any more an undergraduate
degree will not lead directly to professional job opportunities. The requirement
now is often some kind of graduate
degree. From talking to your friends who have graduated, you probably
know that
the job market is tight. Non-profit organizations, institutions,
and corporations often expect their employees to bring with them
the kind of polish, self-direction,
critical thinking skills, and problem-solving abilities that graduate
school routinely develops.
In my experience as a teacher, I find that often
students who didn’t
succeed in high school but thrive as undergraduates wind up astounding
even themselves at the graduate school level. While often demanding, graduate
school also helps you become a more disciplined thinker and fosters
your
ability to solve (or at least ask the most pertinent questions of)
all sorts of problems. If your undergraduate education did not teach you
how to be
a lifelong learner, then graduate school will most definitely do the
trick. For many, graduate school is a wonderful playground. To be in a
community
of scholars and students that cares about what you care about, that
honors the intellectual and creative life is a great luxury. It’s
a wonderful place to also figure out what you want to do and how you can
contribute to
the world. If students don’t know what they want to do with their lives,
I often tell them to go to graduate school. It allows you the time
and the community to figure that out; it delays having to pay back school
loans;
and it’s a respectable enough activity to keep your pressuring friends
and relatives, who want to know what you’re going to be when you grow
up, at arm’s length.
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Does Prescott College prepare you for graduate school?
Absolutely. Our educational approach is based on the graduate school model. Small,
seminar-style classes. Competence-based education, culminating in a senior
project/thesis. A combination of classes, field work, internship, and independent
study. Close mentor relationship with advisors and teachers. Competence-based
criteria for evaluation: literacy in the field, mastery of methodology, application
of learning, interconnection of learning, and personalization of learning.
Portfolio-based methodology. Teachers and students co-facilitating the learning
experience. Opportunities to be a teaching assistant or to participate in the
ongoing research of your mentors. All these PC “alternative” approaches
are the norm at the graduate-school level.
Our students who go on to graduate
school typically excel—primarily because
they have already honed the self-direction skills required of graduate students.
Our students have recently completed or are currently enrolled in graduate programs
across the country in the areas of law, medicine, social work, studio art, creative
writing, literature, filmmaking, and environmental studies—and those are
just our Writing & Literature students!
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Can graduate school be free?
Absolutely. In fact, my theory is that graduate school should not only be free;
it should be profitable! Many students forego graduate school because they
don’t want to go further into debt. The reality is that most graduate
schools offer 75%-100% of their graduate students assistantships, which carry
a full tuition waiver and a decent stipend ($6000-$10,000/year is the norm)
for teaching 1-4 classes a year and/or serving as a research assistant for
a professor. There are typically summer stipend opportunities as well, not
to mention many university and private grants that can help supplement your
assistantship stipend. Most major and even smaller state and private universities
invest most of their money in their graduate programs, and are usually well
funded.
Remember that your undergraduate student loans are typically deferred
until at
least six months after you finish your education—whether that be a B.A.,
M.A., M.F.A., J.D., or Ph.D. Your chances of effectively repaying your undergraduate
loans increase if you have a graduate degree.
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How is grad school different from undergrad?
For Prescott College students, it will be somewhat the same as pursuing your
competence. You will be expected to be self-directed. You will be given quite
a bit of latitude in designing your degree plan, and you will develop a culminating
project that demonstrates your competence. Even at large universities, it will
feel intimate with usually only 20-75 students in your particular program at
any given time.
The great thing about graduate school is that you get to pursue,
for a few years at least, the field you are most passionate about. You work
in small classes
(10-20 students) with great professors who are leaders in their disciplines.
You also get to learn a craft (teaching, research) that will provide you with
professional experience before you start a serious job search. Most importantly,
you get to work with other committed students who will inevitably become your
best friends and lifelong colleagues.
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What criteria should students use to choose graduate
schools?
- Make sure that the graduate school you apply to has a
good reputation. You can find that out by researching graduate
school guides like Peterson’s
Graduate Schools and Programs.
- Study the graduate faculty (again websites are useful). Find out what
kind of research they have done, books or articles they have published.
Search for mentors, and then approach those mentors via letter or email and
let them know that you want to study with them in their program.
- Consult with
your undergraduate mentors and advisors and see where their mentors
or colleagues are teaching. Ask them for help in
selecting good programs, and see if they might be willing to write you a letter
of
recommendation or, better yet, contact the school directly
if they have connections. Remember, your success in graduate school
raises the PC
profile, so it’s
not an inconvenience for faculty to write letters of reference
for you.
- Money. If money is an issue, make sure the graduate
program you apply to has appropriate funding for their students. (Almost
all do.) Typically, graduate schools will indicate their level of
funding up front
since
they are eager to attract the best students from around the country,
and the only
way to do that is to make graduate school free and offer
generous teaching or research assistantship stipends.
- Small fish
in a big pond of a big fish in a small pond? Don’t assume
that state or big private universities (Harvard, Stanford)
are not appropriate, especially if you’ve gone to a small school like Prescott
College. Most state university programs are very strong (that’s where a
lot of tax dollars go). The programs are typically small by design, and the best
faculty often teach at the graduate level. Private liberal
arts colleges
typically focus their energies on quality undergraduate education.
Also, don’t discount the smaller state university graduate program.
You may be able to get more attention, better funding, and
have greater opportunities at a second- or third-tier university where you
are working
with
a smaller
cohort of students and a group of dedicated graduate faculty.
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What is the application process?
You should check the application process (usually available on the website) for
each graduate school you apply to for details. In most cases, you will be expected
to write application essays about your educational history and goals, provide
2-3 letters of recommendation from faculty and advisors who can attest to your
readiness for graduate school, and undergraduate transcripts. Many grad schools
also require some evidence of your work—a critical paper (perhaps that
Writing Cert 2 paper or an excerpt from your senior project!), or an art portfolio
or sample of creative work if you wish to pursue graduate work in the arts.
In most cases, graduate schools will expect you to take one of the national
entrance exams like the GRE or the LSAT (for law school). Some schools, including
prestigious programs, are moving away from standardized national tests, so
even if you are test-phobic, you have options. The average application fee
is about $45.
You should note that graduate school is competitive. You should
spend time and energy on your application, and seek advice from friends and
mentors. A student
applying to graduate schools last year told me that he’d read an article
that said that it was more difficult to get into the Iowa Writers’ MFA
Workshop than it was to get into Harvard Medical School! My main advice: don’t
put all your eggs into one program; remember that there are excellent graduate
schools across the spectrum.
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How do you find out info about different grad programs?
The Internet makes this easy. Go to a search engine (for example, MSN or Google)
and simply type in the keyword: "Graduate School Guide." You will
find what you need there. The oldest and most reliable guide is Peterson’s,
which has detailed notes on (and links to) programs in all disciplines. You
can also limit your search to specific
cities or regions of the country if you are particular about where you live.
You should also talk to your advisor or one of your instructors about websites
that isolate specific disciplines. For example, AWP (Associated Writing Programs)
is the best place to start for students interested in an MFA in creative writing.
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What about graduate tests? GRE's, LSAT's, etc.?
In most cases, you will be required to take at least the GRE (Graduate Record
Examination). The general GRE is like the SAT, only for graduate students.
Some programs (especially for the Ph.D.) may require you to take an additional
subject area GRE (say in literature or biology). If you’re going onto
law school or medical school, expect to take the LSAT or the equivalent for
med school (MCAT). There are testing guides in bookstores—as well as
local and Internet workshops—to help you prepare.
Note: many graduate
schools are downplaying or have already eliminated GRE requirements. I know
of at least one recent test-phobic graduate who narrowed his search for
graduate programs to those that did not require the GRE. Also of note: most
MFA programs—which is the standard graduate degree program for those studying
any kind of artistic craft such as dance, theatre, music, photography, studio
art, or creative writing—will place much more emphasis on your work sample/portfolio
than on GRE scores. Talent counts.
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What about low-residency programs (including PC's program)?
Low-residency programs (sometimes derogatorily referred to as correspondence
schools) have become a legitimate force in graduate school education over the
past couple of decades. Low-residency programs typically are year-round programs
that offer periodic on-campus "residencies" (2-4 residencies, or
about 20-30 days, a year), where students meet with their advisors, participate
in workshops, lectures, panel discussions, cohort groups, etc. The rest of
the year, students correspond with their faculty mentors via email and phone,
though most require exchanges of formal "packets" of material that
are evaluated monthly. While there are some charlatan programs out there that
offer bogus MAs or PhDs with little to no work, many low-residency programs
offer rigorous (even cutting-edge) options. These programs are especially targeted
to more mature students who may already have families or professions that will
not allow them to pick up and move to Iowa or Boston for 2-6 years. These programs
don’t normally offer much in the way of tuition waivers or teaching/research
assistantships, but they do offer flexibility and often attract a stronger
student body as well as high-profile faculty from across the nation (the faculty
does not have to uproot themselves either).
Goddard College pioneered this
kind of education. The best low-residency programs tend to
carve out a particular niche for themselves. Warren Wilson College, Bennington
College,
and Vermont College have outstanding low-residency MFA programs in creative
writing that rival any residency program in the country. Union Institute
offers rigorous
low-residency graduate programs, including one of the only Ph.D. programs in
the country. Prescott College has distinguished graduates from (and current
students in) their Ph.D. program, including Tom Fleischner, Ed Grumbine,
Joel Barnes,
and Joan Clingan.
Prescott College’s M.A. program is based on a low-residency
model, and Joan Clingan (MAP Program Director) or Steve Walters (ADP Dean) can
answer questions
about the advantages and disadvantages of that program. We are also in the process
of developing a low-residency Ph.D. program, though that could take a few more
years to initiate.
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Will a "terminal" degree kill you?
Maybe. Graduate school has the reputation of being either a haven for procrastinators
("When are you going to finish that dissertation?!") and an incubator
for nervous breakdowns and divorces. Most people I know, however, loved their
graduate school experience or, at the very least, they do not regret the time
they spent pursuing an unfinished degree. It does require maturity to succeed
in graduate school, and a certain level of self-discipline. And, make no mistake,
you will be challenged. But graduate school is, quite frankly, easier and more
enjoyable to manage than a job that you hate, or a lifestyle that may require
you to work hard, long hours in a community that does not honor (let alone
prize) the life of the mind. I spent 2½ years getting my B.A., whizzing
through, and then spent almost six years in graduate school, pursuing three
additional degrees (completing two of them). I loved graduate school, even
the anxiety and strain of completing two lengthy theses. I loved many of my
mentors and peers, and have stayed in close contact with them over the years.
If I was independently wealthy, I might spend the rest of my life in graduate
school, pursuing areas that have budded as additional interests for me as I’ve
grown older. Regardless, I am confident from my graduate school training, that
I know how to go about learning what I want to learn. And I also understand
the costs of education—not just financially but emotionally, intellectually,
and psychologically. For me, the benefits definitely outweigh the costs. Too
many excellent students, who are perfect candidates for graduate school, discount
it because they don’t think they’re smart enough or they feel they
can’t afford it. Not true. On both counts.
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