Staying organized: How to keep track of all of your possible grad schools
This article is a part of a series on Finding Programs and Labs to Apply to for Graduate School. Figuring out where to apply is one of the most daunting tasks most grad-school-seeking folks run into. It is also one of the biggest deterrents. Many people never get to grad school because they can’t find a school that will 1) suit their academic needs and 2) admit them! See here for the introduction to the series.
Staying organized: How to keep track of all of your possible grad schools
Alright, so you have a good list going of lots of different schools and programs to apply to, right? Great! This section might be a little shorter than the last, but it is very important and worth a read.
Many people feel extremely overwhelmed at this point because they have this long list of professors, universities, and programs all in a disorganized word document with no real idea of where they would fit in best. Let’s remind ourselves that grad school is about opening as many doors as we can and learning as much as possible.
A cluttered space leads to a cluttered and stressed out mind. Here is an example spreadsheet to help you organize your thoughts and notes. This spreadsheet is color coded by top choices (green), possibilities (yellow), and eliminated (red). Names and affiliations are made up!
Some tips for organizing yourself:
Keep track of how you found out about them- was it a recommendation from someone? Networking is key, and if you name drop someone while talking to them it will make them much more likely to remember who you are
Keep multiple tabs in the same spreadsheet to keep track of different kinds of programs (Masters vs PhD) and disciplines (if you have multiple interests)
Color coding things helps. Yellow: I’m very interested in them. Green: They are interested in me. Red: I’ve contacted them and been rejected
Copy the URL for their lab website into a column or hyper link them, this makes it easy to quickly refresh and reference them and look at their current and past grad students
Keep track of who you’ve contacted and who you have not, it is easy to forget when you are sending 20 emails
Keep a column called “field” where you keep track of what kind of sub-discipline they are in… this will help you figure out if what they study is what you really want to do (or not!)- and you can easily start to see the spectrum of sub-disciplines that you are looking at. This will help you narrow in later.
I like to keep a column called “Arbitrary Grade” where I give the person or program a semi-arbitrary letter grade based on how much I like them, how similar their research is to my interests, whether they’ve been recommended to me, and whether I like the university/program/location.
Don’t just delete people who reject you or who you don’t like as much. It is important to keep track of everything in case you need to reference it later. Just give them a lower priority or color them red
Keep track of people you would like to send ‘Thank You’ notes to after it is all said and done. Keep a tab of everyone that has helped you and be sure to follow up thanking them. This little bit of networking can go a long way.
