If you want to get into your top choice grad school, you need a strategy.
You can’t just apply to random schools, wait until the last minute to write your personal statement, or ask random professors for letters of recommendation.
You need to plan.
You need to think ahead.
You need a strategy. And it must include these six things:
- Strengthening Your GPA
- Doing your best on the GRE
- Getting strong letters of recommendation
- Crafting a compelling resume
- Preparing for Interviews (even if you don’t have any!)
- Writing a standout Personal Statement
Let me walk you through how to plan for each of these things. At the end, there’s a printable worksheet you can use to take notes and customize your strategy.
1. Strengthening Your GPA
The job of the admissions committee is to predict who has the best chances of success in graduate school.
There’s no getting around it: your GPA matters. It is a reflection of your previous work and achievement in an academic setting. Dr. Brenda Seal, professor and researcher of Speech & anguage Science said, “The best predictor of grades in grad school is undergraduate grades.
Ok… you get it, so, how can you bring your GPA up?
Have the right attitude: Before you even hit the books, you need to get in the right frame of mind. If you’re in panic all the time worrying about grades, you’re not focused on learning.
This is a big mindset shift, and it isn’t an easy one to make.
How do you do it?
I recommend whole heartedly The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. This book focuses on principles and habits that will shift your perspective. It isn’t a study book per se, but I really think it can help you you into the right mindset.
Note, there is a version for adults (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) but the information is the same, and I prefer the teen version. In fact, sometimes I use it with clients!
As you’re reading it, think of your life as a student and ways you can maximize your learning.
Study smarter not harder:
If you need some immediate tips for to study smarter, I recommend Ali Abdaal and these two blog posts:
Both of them look at specific and highly useful techniques for studying. I think if you spend some time with them, you’ll learn a thing or two to help you do better in class.
2. Doing your best on the GRE
Before I start writing about how important it is to do well on the GRE, let me just say: I loathe the GRE for lots of reasons, but mostly because it seems to contribute to the lack of diversity not only in our field but in academic and education in general (Wilson, Odem, Walters, DePass, & Bean, 2019) while also not being very good at what we use it for (Kuncel, Hezlett, Ones, 2001; Miller & Stassun, 2014; Moneta-Koehler, Brown, Petrie, Evans, & Chalkley, 2017)
That said, the GRE ain’t going anywhere soon, so you might as well do your best on it.
What’s the easiest way to get a GRE score?
Brutal honesty: Study hard for a significant period of time.
I know that sucks to hear, but it is the truth. There aren’t any magical hacks.
Sure, there are absolutely strategies that can help you boost your performance, but they’re next to useless if you don’t have the underlying skills.
After months of wasting my time jumping between free tools and dividing my efforts, I bought the Magoosh program and used it for 6 months. It boosted my score by 17 points.
And I recommend you do the same (learn more here).
3. Getting Strong Letters of Recommendation
There are two key things to think about when getting letters of recommendation.
- You don’t just want any old letter of recommendation. You want strong letters of recommendation.
- You don’t want three letters that all say the exact same thing, you want a strategic variety.
Getting strong LORs is as easy as earning them and then asking for them. How do you earn them? Remember the first point in this post and the emphasis on learning rather than grades? If you’re learning in class, professors will notice it and be excited. Because they’re not there to “give grades,” they’re there to teach.
So what about asking for them? There’s a lot that goes into asking the right way (like building a relationship with the professor), but when you do ask, include the word strong. Why? It gives the professor a polite opportunity to tell if you if they’re going to write you a mediocre letter… which gives you the chance to ask someone else.
Getting a strategic variety: I’ve read zillions of letters of recommendation as a member of the selection committee for various Fulbright-García Robles grants. Most of the time they’re repetitive. If you have a strategic variety, your letters will complement each other and highlight various strengths.
4. Crafting a Compelling Resume
In the applications I see, resumes are definitely underleveraged. Spend some time learning how to take advantage of these extra pages in your application to show yourself off!
At worst, your resume is a simple, one-page list of jobs you’ve had. At best, it is a living document that quantifies and qualifies a variety of professional experiences that show you can handle not only the rigors of graduate coursework but also the unpredictable world of clinical practice.
All my advice on writing SLP grad school resumes is here: https://thespeechblog.com/resumes_cv/
5. Preparing for Interviews…even if you don’t have any
Not many schools do interviews because of how time and labor intensive they are. But did you know that even if you’re not doing an interview, preparing for one can help you?
Taking the time to answer these 7 common interview questions will force you to think through some important parts of your application. As you work on an answer, you’ll refine your understanding of yourself and your motivation.
If you DO have interviews, take the time to prepare. You don’t want to memorize scripted responses, but there are some pretty simple strategies to help you project confidence and professionalism.
6. Writing a Standout Personal Statement
Just sitting down and writing a personal statement is not strategic.
Nope.
If you want to be methodical about improving your applications, you need to spend some time on pre-writing brainstorming. In my book, SLP To Be, I provide lots of easy to complete pre-writing activities to help you better understand your unique position as an applicant. There’s also a lot of advice here on my site.
If you want to DIY-it… that’s cool! Start early and start working on them 6-9 months ahead of the application deadline. Get a rough draft done ASAP.
Once you have that draft, find mentors, friends, professors (anyone who will give you honest feedback) and start asking them for feedback.
The Worksheet & How to Use It
Now that you understand how important each part of your application is, you need to do some honest self-assessment.
I’ve created a simple to use worksheet with some short questions or rules of thumb to help you determine if each element of your strategy is strong, average, or weak. There are color and black-and-white PDFs to download on my free tools page.
Be honest as you self-assess. Try to identify 2 strengths, 2 weaknesses, and 2 areas in which you’re average.
When you know your areas of strength, try to leverage those throughout the process. Are you a stellar interviewer? Maybe you should look to apply to programs that interview applicants so you can shine. If you have a strong resume with awesome experience, consider looking for recommenders from your past that can bring to life those experiences in a killer and unique letter of recommendation.
Once you’ve done this, use the third column to make a plan to improve your weaknesses (and your average areas if you’ve got the time!). I’ve provided tips in the middle column.
With your weaknesses in mind and some strategies to improve, try sketching out a timeline. Start with the end in mind and work backwards from there. Don’t overfill your timeline. Be realistic.
Remember
We need you in this field.
There are too many unfilled jobs leading to lengthy waitlists and clients who don’t get the service they need.
I know this can all seem overwhelming, but it is worth it to get into graduate school for speech-language pathology. Don’t give up.