Preparing for Graduate School Applications

Around January-March/April, try to visit campus!

Many universities normally have the final acceptance date as April 15th.

Do the leg work for finding teaching assistantships and research assistantships. It's not enough to just check the boxes.

Statement of purpose should vary based on the university. Talk about specific research that they are doing and perhaps even a specific professor. Talk about what you bring to the table. Speak about time as software team lead at aerial robotics club.

If you email a professor before you have an application or before you have even been accepted, you might be wasting your time. It's good to know the professors you want and do your research for your application because it looks good in your essays but a lot of professors don't really want to respond when someone hasn't even been accepted yet.

Give recommenders a "package". That is, tell them some information about what insight you want them to provide, what your goal is to do in grad school, and possibly even your resume or CV.