All right. It's 4:47, it looks like the number of people entering the workshop is starting to slow down a bit. So I should be able to, to begin the workshop and capture people as they enter. Just a real quick thing, I've got a new computer and I want to make sure that my audio is working. So if somebody could give me a thumbs up, maybe just to make sure that I know everybody can hear me. That would be great. Thank you very much. I see that. All right. Okay. Let's get started. My name is Greg Foster. I'm the Interim Executive Director at Cornell Career Services. I also serve as the pre-law and pre graduate school advisor in our office. And I'm really happy that everybody has been able to join us today for this conversation about applications to graduate school. Um, I have a number of sides to cover. And I would be very happy though along the way to to take any questions that we have. And I will just note that I'm having a little bit of trouble advancing the slides. So maybe just give me a second here to figure out what I'm what I'm doing wrong. Sorry about that. All right. There we go. Sorry about the interruption. Okay. So as I was saying, although there are a number of sides to go through, I'm very happy to take questions along the way. It might be easiest given the size of the group that we have today to submit those questions in the chat. I will I will certainly be checking the chat along the way, try to capture those questions as they come up. And then to the extent that I can't get to them during the presentation and be very happy to stick around afterward. And I can go through those questions with anyone who wants to stay in the Zoom call. All right, before we kinda dive into applications, I want to talk a little bit about the model that we follow at Cornell Career Services. This because I think it doesn't form the approach to applying to graduate school. So essentially our view is that career development is the cycle. That basically there are C, three sequences to the cycle that you will go through each time you, you sort of make a move in your career. So the first step we think is understanding yourself, and that means understanding your interests, your values, your strengths, and your goals. Um, and that takes work and it's a valuable part of the process. We think the second step is explore your options. And that really is once you do have a sense that you understand where you're headed, you want to make sure to take time to explore what options are available given your interests, values, strengths, and goals. And that can be conducted by online research, certainly by networking, by activities that you get involved with here at Cornell. It could be also part of exploring through summer experiences like internship. And then finally, once you feel like you understand yourself and you've explored your options, the last step is taking action. And that really just means applying for something. And that's kind of where we are in today's presentation. So today we'll be talking about taking action. But will, it will be informed by the good work that you do in the first two sequences in the career development model. So our goals for today will be first to become familiar with a timetable for each step in the application process. And then second, to understand the steps required for application. Most graduate or professional programs. And before we get started with that, I apologize for the blurring nature of this graphic which we've just created. I do want to highlight a couple of resources that I think are important for anybody who is considering application to graduate or professional school. And that is our virtual gradual graduate and professional school day. On September 28th, that's due next Tuesday from one to four. We've been sending us some targeted messaging about this, that through Handshake. And you should be able to register on Handshake for the event. I'm a big believer in this event, basically where we've pulled together, I think now a 183 graduate and professional schools across the country into our, our virtual fair. And this is an opportunity for you to interact with admissions professionals from this programs. And so at one approach to that really can be taking a look at the list of schools that are, that are attending. And maybe narrowing that down to three or four that you're particularly interested in speaking with. And then maybe developing a few questions, four or five questions that will help you do some discovery about those programs. So the goal in attending a program like this is really to learn about the graduate programs that are of interest to you by asking those questions. And maybe learn a little bit about their application process, maybe a little bit more about their prerequisites, gives you an opportunity to explore those questions that you might have after just you're kind of research involving in their website or their, their faculty. This is a chance to talk with them and get feedback. It's also a chance to make a positive impression. So they're not going to admit you there at our, our, our event. However, they many of them will take note of the fact that they've had a conversation with you and that will end up getting activated if you do apply your at their school, that note, we'll probably end up in your file. But also when you do apply it to their program, you'll be able to reference back the fact you've had this conversation that it was positive, that it made you even more excited about their program. And that might help demonstrate to them some commitment to actually attending their program, which can be helpful when you're applying. So I just encourage everyone to register for this program, do a little bit of research about that. The schools that are attending and then plan to speak with, with a handful them on, on the day of the event. Alright, applying to graduate school. In some ways, it's similar to applying to undergraduate colleges. There are some basic requirements. There are some deadlines that you need to meet, and there are some application procedures and timing that you'll need to follow. It's important to note that for some health professional schools, there, there could be some differences in those procedures, in those deadlines. With regard to health careers, in particular in medical school and some some other health career. We do have a health career advising program at Cornell career services. And there are health career advisors in many of the colleges across campus, it's important to, to check in with them and make sure that you're hearing from them about specifics related to applying to those programs? All right. A basic timetable for applying. What I want to do is walk us through a timetable. Because they're such variability and when you might be applying, it could be applying to go straight through out of undergraduate, or you might be applying a year or two afterward or even longer after your, your time at Cornell. But just for purpose of the purposes of discussion and illustration today, we're going to walk through a scenario for a student who intends to matriculate in graduate school directly after graduating from Cornell as an undergraduate. So for illustrative purposes, we're going to use that example. So in terms of timing, it can kind of break down like this. And again, this is for somebody who's going to be going straight through from Cornell Undergraduate to some graduate program. And I see something in the chat. Let me just check on that. Oh, the question is when you say health careers with that include a master's in public health or do you mean Medical School? Thank you for that question, and it certainly means medical school. It could include Masters in Public Health. I think you could start with myself as a graduate school advisor. You may also get some positive information from our health careers advisor in that regard. So I may end up referring you to that person, based on our conversation, but thank you for that clarifying question. All right. So in terms of timing, junior year, if you're thinking of going straight through the graduate school, here are the steps that you'd want to begin to consider. First, you'd want to figure out what the admissions criteria are for the schools that you're interested in and for the particular degree that you're interested in, the admissions criteria and could certainly differ. For somebody seeking a master's degree. Versus somebody seeking a PhD. And your approach to applying to graduate school could be somewhat different. If you're applying for a master's degree versus applying for a PhD. That's something we'll talk about a little bit today, but also something that we can cover in individual advising sessions in more detail. You want to do in that time frame. Also some research into the areas of interests that you have, which institutions and programs relate to those areas of interests. You also want to sort of hone in on which graduate admissions tests or tests will be appropriate for that particular program. You want to look into. Sort  of funding is available. That could be some fellowships. Could also be scholarships that flow from the institution where you're applying. And you want to maybe begin to think about who will I ask for letters of recommendation? Letters of recommendation on one of the one of the components of nearly every application to graduate school. And we'll talk about them a little bit later in this presentation. As you get into summer before your senior year, you might use that time to take the graduate admissions tests. You might also use that time to begin to gather the application materials you're going to, you're going to need to submit. If you have the opportunity to visit either in person or virtually, some of the programs that you're interested in. Summer can be a good time for that. You can also start looking at your your application essays. And we'll talk a little bit about that later in the presentation as well. Certainly this is a time to check in on the application deadlines. Although you can think about sort of a general time-frame for app, for the application process, maybe opening some time and in early fall, maybe September 1. It might have a deadline of December 1 or December 15th. That's kind of a general rule. It's really important to look at the the actual programs you're applying to and see what their application deadlines are. Because they, they might differ. Alright, I think I skipped ahead. There we go. Alright. Then in your senior year, and again, this is assuming that you're going to apply to graduate school and your senior year in order to attend the fall after you graduate. So in your senior year in the fall, that's when you're going to want to actually obtain those letters of recommendation from professors or other references that you'll use. Again, I'd recommend attending our Graduate and Professional School Day. You will want to begin to run your essays by others to see what they think you might want to improve upon or to get affirmation that you are in a good place. So our office, Cornell Career Services, certainly. We'll be happy to take a look at those essays. Usually that's going to be me. Critiquing those essays. There are other resources for essay critiques that we'll talk about in a bit as well. If you haven't already taken the graduate admission prior to the fall, fall really is then your time to get that done. Typically in December and January. That's when you'll be looking to submit those applications. And then later in the process in January. You might be completing financial aid applications. You might also need checking with schools before their deadlines to make sure yourfile is complete. And if not, pulling together the materials that you're going to need later in the spring. Hopefully, you'll be keeping track of acceptances waitlist and rejections, and then following up on those to make sure that you actually finalize admission to the school that you want to attend. You may also, if you're admitted to a number of schools, want to consider visiting them either in person or virtually whichever's is possible. And then probably make a decision by April or May. Of course that's going to be subject to financial aid. There are opportunities to, to discuss financial aid with the programs where you're accepted and maybe even do you think that the figure that they're offering, isn't sufficient to also ask for reconsideration of your financial aid? It can look for some additional money. So that's a basic timeline. I want to highlight a couple of resources that you can use in choosing this specialization that you're interested in. And then in researching schools and programs that are out there. So one tool that I would definitely steer you toward is our Career Development toolkit. That is a Canvas module that we've been developing over the course of the last year and a half. And I'm, the content is specific to Cornell students. So you won't find this content anywhere else. Other than our Career Development toolkit. However, it does contain a number of resources external to Cornell. It's an excellent reference tool for the graduate school application process. The module itself, the pre-read module, is worth just taking an initial look at maybe a good 20 minutes to an initial read through. It's going to cover everything from questions like, should I go to graduate school? Very broad questions to very focused. It's like, what should I write in my statement of purpose and I, and my essay. This will be a reference tool that you're probably return to a number of times over the course of your application process. It is not a substitute for, for advising, but hopefully you'll find it to be a powerful supplement to the advice he can get through our office, another career services offices across campus. All right. You're going to then want to compile a list of schools that you're interested in. And that means taking into consideration the academic programs at those schools, research the facilities, the current faculty at those schools. Available. Financial aid. How much it costs is steady there? How much it costs to live there? What's the student body like? Do you want to be in that geographic area? And then also what are the application requirements? As a general guide for this process, many people turn to the Peterson's annual guides to graduate study. Oops, didn't mean to move forward yet. That that source includes a searchable database. That really is a great starting point for just about every graduate program that's out there in the US. So that might be a place to start. You can link to that directly also through our career development toolkit. I think I see a question in the chat. Okay, so the question in the chat, will we have access to the size Apps, an information session? The answer is yes, and I apologize for that kind of clumsy use of URLs here, but that's in case somebody is actually trying to see that URL for the particular site that I, that I'm referencing, it will be available. We're also recording this. After we've had a chance to transcribe, it, will be posting this presence attention on our, in our media library at the Cornell Career Services website as well. All right. Let's see. Continuing in a subject of choosing a specialization and researching schools. These guides that you might be referencing could be specific to the graduate school areas. And these are some of the areas where you could find guides that are specific to the study areas that you're interested in. Some of those guides can be found in our, in our library at Barnes Hall. Certainly other guides available online and maybe online now is, is the preferable way to, to review them. All right? Again, in the vein of choosing a specialization and researching schools, really I think an important place starting point is to have conversations, talk to people who are knowledgeable about your area of interests. I think that's really where you're going to start to develop a fund of knowledge about graduate school areas. And to kinda pull the lens back here just a little bit. I think it's helpful when you are considering graduate school to think beyond graduate school. And it kind of ask yourself, what kind of work do I want to be doing in the future after graduate school? The answer to that question very often will inform the graduate schools that you look at. It will help you decide which programs, which degree levels are appropriate for the kind of work they want to do? A good way to, to ask and get that question answered is to talk with your professors here at Cornell, to talk with advisors, whether it's an academic advisor or it's an adviser in a career services office, and also talk with graduate students who are knowledgeable about that area of interests. Now, in terms of reaching out to professors, maybe you have classes with them. Maybe you can begin to cultivate a relationship with those professors through office hours or other ways to interact. If you're trying to find people who are sort of out in the, in your field of interest. Sometimes that can be a little bit tricky. How do you identify those people? How do you get in touch with them? And we have a tool for that. If you have not already, it's definitely worth your while to checkout C or E links. Links. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, is a platform designed to connect Cornell students. Cornell Alumni, specifically for career development conversations. Basically, there are almost 7 thousand members and the alumni in our database. And those members of the alumni are all volunteers. They have volunteered to have career development conversations with you. So maybe unlike LinkedIn, you can send a chat request through Siri links and you're almost certain to receive a response. And hopefully that will help you begin a conversation. So the way it will work is you'll set up a profile and seeing your legs. And then you'll gain access searchable database. And he should be L, the keyword your way right into people who are doing a kind of work that you're interested in. You'll be able to look at their bios and you'll be able to initiate conversations with them. That will allow you to start to understand how they got where they are, what's the day-to-day like for them? What role they graduate school play in their path to their current position. Some of the questions that you might run by people, whether it's professors or people had an industry or graduate students, could include what are the emerging trends in the, in the field that I'm interested in? Can you tell me about the reputation of the schools or the programs I'm considering. Do you know anything about how competitive the admissions process is at the schools? Do you know what sorts of career opportunities are available? If I get a degree from this programs? Those are all questions that you really kinda want to ask before you choose the schools that you're going to apply to. Other resources to consider. In choosing schools and choosing a specialization. Reviewing publications on current research in a particular discipline you are interested in is help. Very helpful. Not only in learning about that discipline, but also in, in learning about who's writing, who's, who's publishing in the. Maybe that tells you a little bit about faculty members that are active at particular schools. Maybe it tells you a little bit about which faculty members are, are enjoying receiving grant money that, that might support your city at that school. That can be a nice entry point. In terms of maybe even identifying, if you're looking at for a PhD, maybe identifying future PhD advisors who will be guiding you through your, your PhD studies. You may also want to stop by man are all in library to find professional journals and, and, and review those journalists to learn more about research specializations. So these are more tools that you can use to kind of narrow, narrow down which programs, well, which fields of study and in which programs within those fields of study you're most interested in. All right, some factors in the selection process. For graduate schools, you might apply it to try to set some forth here. Certainly, faculty quality is important. Funds that are tied to specific research is also important, as I mentioned before, identifying faculty members that might be guiding you through your graduate studies at the PhD level is something you want to take into account. And you also want to consider, I think most particularly with regard to PhD level studies, reaching out to PhD advisors at the time that you're applying, or maybe even before you apply to try to get a sense for fit. Is this an advisor that you think is a good fit for you? Will that advisor think the same thing about you is, are you somebody that advisor will take an interest in? I want to work with you. And that's a conversation that I can I can help you with as well in an advising appointment in terms of who to reach out to or how to begin that conversation. So I'd be very happy to have that kind of a discussion in an advising appointment. It's also important to know about graduate program ratings. Certainly there are some areas where those ratings are readily available, like law school, like medical school, business school. We can find the rankings for those programs. I think it's. An important to be aware of those rankings, but also to know where the rankings fit in your overall analysis of which schools are right for you. It's also important to know how those rankings are created. Sometimes the opinions of other scholars are heavily weighted in the rankings. Sometimes that can lead to the rankings being oriented toward schools that have had a long-standing reputation. Sometimes it's good to take those with a little bit of a grain of salt as well. Because maybe those rankings don't actually address the specific needs are from the program. So rankings matter. But they're certainly not, not everything when it comes to choosing a graduate programs. All right, other features that can be useful in, in, in your process in determining quality. Look at the faculty. What is their academic training? What are they currently researching? Are they publishing? And do they have a reputation for teaching effectiveness and for the development, their students and development. Those are things that, that you want to take into account. It's not just one of these, probably the bundle of these things that matter when you're evaluating faculty. Also. Are there opportunities for faculty, faculty student interaction? Those sometimes can be good questions to ask a current graduate students. Spend their experience in the program that they're in. You want to look at the resources at the schools. Often their libraries and important resource for national support is definitely an important resource. If you're involved in, in a, in a discipline that's going to have you in a laboratory. You know, what are the facilities like? What kind of equipment are they using? What kind of technological support is available? Those are all things to ask about again. Also, if you were at the graduate school and professional school event, the virtual event that we talked about earlier. These topics can form the basis for questions you might want to run by admissions professionals as well. What about the students in those programs? And what can you learn about them? What was their academic ability at the time they entered the program? What about their graduates? What had been the professional accomplishments of the graduates from that program where they working now, how satisfied are the students with the various aspects of the program? Do they feel a good group morale on campus and in the community? Those are, again, if you're able to estab, conversations with graduate students in those programs or maybe recent graduates those programs. These topics might be good, good basis for forming some questions for your conversation a student. And finally, with regard to judging the quality of the programs, it is also important to consider the administration at those programs. So, you know, but what support this administration provide for the programs? What kind of advising is available? What kind of internships or assistantships are other opportunities? Does the administration of that program make available all things to consider? And again, how is Administration helping graduates of that program gain employment following the program? All right, Now, emissions criteria, obviously an important part of our conversation about mastering applications to graduate school. Basically, these are the areas in the criterion, the components of the application process that graduate programs you're going to be looking at. They're going to want to know about your GPA. They're going to see letters of recommendation. You're going to want to see, and in many cases, admission test scores. Now, that's changing a little bit. Particularly since the pandemic began. Some programs are waving admissions tests and certainly you want to check with the individual programs you're applying to to know whether they're requiring it and if it's optional, is it going to help you or not to take that test? And then sometimes that can be an individualized decision. And one we can certainly talk about in an advising setting. You want to know for sure that you have the appropriate undergraduate degree. That is a prerequisite for that program. You also want to develop good essays that really help create a narrative structure for your overall application. And you want to look for opportunities to provide samples of your creative talent. Particularly in those disciplines where, where that's appropriate. Alright? What happens in the admissions process at the programs? You can be assured that they're going to look carefully at your, your academic record. Which aspects of the, you know, which components of the application are they going to focus on that may fluctuate from student to soon? These programs are going to take a holistic view of your application. So they're going to care about all aspects of your application. However, some aspects of your application may become more important to them than others. They rarely base or decisions solely upon test scores and GPAs. But of course, that application process are, or how they scrutinize your components of your application. That's going to vary from school to school. Very often your application file is going to be reviewed by academic departments. The final decision will often be made by a dean or a vice president, but, but their decision is going to be deeply informed by the fact got a committee that has reviewed those applications. All right. Here are some ways that your application process can, can go off the rails and not work out. Certainly, you want to meet the deadline. So that means first being aware of the deadlines. And then that means also planning a time period that allows you to meet the deadline for submission of your application. You want to make sure that you're, you're, you're engaging in sort of a realistic assessment, admissions criteria for a particular program. And what you're able to bring to that program. If, if that is out of alignment, it's going to make it hard to gain admission to a program. So sometimes that can be down to is my GPA going to need the minimum requirement? Or it could be as my academic record in terms of what I've been studying, is that consistent with what those programs are looking for? And if you're out of alignment, that may mean you need to take some additional steps before applying to that particular graduate program, which we can also talk about in advising appointments. If you're right, an inappropriate essay. That's not going to help. If you, if you do not get effective recommendation letters that can also be harmful. We'll talk about that a little bit later in this presentation. Of course, you need your application to be complete. And that means sometimes checking in with the graduate program to make sure that your file is complete. In some cases, if the program that you're applying to a research oriented, if you have not done some research prior to the time that you apply, that could be a deficit in your application that you're going to need to make up for, possibly with, with doing some research before you apply. And again, that that's something that we can discuss individual appointments. All right, so how do you begin? Once you know where you want to apply? The pressure, obviously need to get the application materials. I think in the in the, in the past, that would have meant contacting the schools, maybe even mailing them and getting them back in the male, of course now, it means visiting their website and downloading the application materials. If you have questions about the application materials. And it is certainly okay to directly connect with the program and ask those questions. I would just caution you to first read their website carefully. Makes for the answer to your question isn't readily available on the website. And if it isn't, then it is perfectly okay to get in touch with the admissions professionals at those programs and ask your question in a professional way. Sometimes that's even an opportunity for making a positive impression. So don't hesitate to ask those questions that you can't get answered from just looking at their online materials. I think I see a question in the chat. Let's see here. Is the benefit of research, just the skills it teaches you? Or do you need to have done research in your specific field? But if you've done research in the field, you're not getting a master's in? That's a great question. And the answer is probably more nuanced than that. What I can deliver just in this presentation, but I will give it a shot. It depends on what you're what program you're applying to? In some cases, yes. Doing that research prior to arriving at the program is about skills development. It's, it's about sort. Being prepared with the skills needed to succeed in graduate level research. Sometimes you can acquire those skills in a topic area that's different than the one that you want to enter for your graduate work. So that's, that's possible. It's really going to come down to the type of graduate work that you want to do. If you, again, if you find that your background is or misaligned with what's required for the kind of graduate work that you really want to do. The remaining mean that you need to do some bridge work between your time as an undergraduate and, and applying for graduate school that could be a year or two doing the kind of research that you're interested in. It could be, sometimes it's a Master's program that brings you to a PhD program. It could be a certificate program, the right kind of certificate program. It could be work in industry and there are a lot of different ways to approach it. So it's not to say yes or no answers really is kind of nuanced. And again, I know I keep saying this, but also a good topic for individual advising and also for, for running that kind of a question by professors. In that field, Cornell professors asking them, you know, am I a good fit, or is there something more I need to be doing? Very often the professors are the experts. Well, almost always, the professors are the experts in a particular field. And I would definitely nudge toward asking this question, um, professors in a particular field. All right. Graduate admission test preparation. Obviously this is important. You want to first identify the appropriate graduate admissions tests, tests that you're going to need to take for your desired program. We do have some materials in our library of burns hall that can help you with with test preparation. Also, you can look for these test preparation books in bookstores. And of course, there are online materials and online courses that can assist you with preparation. So there, there are a number of different resources to prepare for these tests. Now, to dive into a little bit more detail. Certainly you're going to want to be doing practice tests. These are helpful for a number of different reasons. You can find those practice tests online. Again, also in our library. Cornell store may have them as well. And there are online providers who also have these tests available. So essentially you're going to want to try to pick a path for the type of test that you're going to take. Look at the vendors that are out there for test preparation and decide whether you want to go with a vendor or not. Do you want it to be self-guided? We're just using the materials available, or do you want to be in a setting where you have access to courses and maybe even tutors. Those are things that you're going to want to look into. Can help guide you with that through an advising program or I'm sorry, an advising appointment. And then he may also want to talk with recent with graduate students who've recently gone through the process. They may have opinions about the different test prep providers that are out there. One thing that you want to keep in mind is you want to be taking tests that, that closely approximate practices that closely approximate the actual tests. Be careful that you're using test prep vendors that have access to copyrighted materials so that you are taking tests that are, that are definitely targeted on a particular tests that you're going to be taking. And again, whether they have those materials are not should be explicit. When you're dealing with a test prep vendors. That's a key question. Ask them. Another thing to keep in mind, of course, is costs. Some of these, these courses are expensive. Cost doesn't necessarily correlate with quality. You do want to investigate the course carefully and do check in with students who are to the process. They can be helpful in that way. Having said all this many times, these, these courses are help pull. They can help you structure your study process. They can motivate you to continue preparing in a timely way. And they can help you build competence for test day. So it is worth looking into commercial test prep courses as well. All right. Let's see. I do want to move on from test prep. I will just note, I think the key thing to note here is that typically your skills improve with practice. Do you want to build in? Substantial time for practice tests. And so just keep that in mind when you're choosing a test state, that you do have time prior to that to do the preparation that's necessary. All right. Letters of recommendation. Nearly every graduate program is going to request letters of recommendation for admission. Admission committees. Admissions committees are going to look for in those letters. Information that's not provided elsewhere, either in your essay or the materials that you, that you submit. Essentially what you're looking for is a recommender who knows you and knows your work well. You also want a recommender who will be credible. And so what I mean by that is very often what's being evaluated by the admissions committees is whether you're going to thrive in the app. Educate, I'm sorry, in the education environment, the academic environment of the graduate school you're applying to. And since the letter of recommendation is essentially an opinion about whether you'll thrive in an academic environment. Professors are very credible. They are aware of the academic environment. They know what it takes to succeed. So a professor who knows you and knows your work well will be a very credible author of a letter of recommendation. And that is ultimately hopefully what you're going to be looking for when you look for recommended. Usually you're going to need between 23 of these letters. Let me just check here. I see a question in the chat. Once you start asking professors for letters of recommendation as a great question. Okay? Because timing is always a little bit wonky when, when we're we're dealing with, well, it might be applying a year or two or more out of graduate school. People who might want to go straight through graduates, undergraduate to graduate school. Let's use that straight through model for timing. So again, this is a person who is applying for graduate school in their senior year of undergraduate school. Okay, So when you start asking professors, I think the best way to think about this is when to start cultivating recommenders, not necessarily when to ask for the letter. So maybe in your junior year and you start to have your spring of your junior year, maybe you start to have conversations with professors. And maybe those conversations relate to the content of the course that you're in. That's a good idea. They can also relate to career development. Maybe you can tell them, Hey, I'm starting to get interested in this particular discipline. And can we talk about your path to becoming a professor in this discipline? How did you get there? What graduate program did you go through? What steps do you think are important? And having those career development conversations, you're really beginning to cultivate a relationship with the recommender. And it's giving the recommender an opportunity to get to know you, but maybe also to start to get to know your work. And that's great because that's the foundation that they're going to need to write a good letter. And so that might be happening in the spring of your junior year. You might need that letter. You will need that letter probably in the fall of your senior year. So maybe a good idea toward the end of the spring of your junior year or maybe over the summer, to approach those professors that you're building those relationships with and say, Okay, I'm going to be applying to graduate school in the fall. And I'd sure like a letter of recommendation from you. What size that is. That gives the professor plenty of notice and plenty of time to draft the letter and also to ask you for materials that would support that letter. And so that essentially means if a professor is going to say no to writing a letter, it won't be because they don't have time. It will be because they don't want to write the letter for one reason or another. So giving a professor plenty of time is a really good idea. In additionally, it gives you time to pull together the materials that they might need. And i'm I'm getting ahead of myself here with a size. That's okay. They may want to see your transcripts. They may want to see your resume. They may want to see a draft of your personal statement or your statement of purpose. They probably will want to see some of your work product if they have, if they're a professor at one of your classes. So you want to give them time to review those materials. I think it's a good idea to submit those materials under cover of it. Have an email, so attach them maybe to an e-mail. And in the email, you might also want to provide a couple of bullet points about what your research into the graduate programs you're applying to has revealed to you, you know, what skills do you think those programs are interested in? Make and maybe a little bit of information on how you think you might be a good fit for those programs. That pebble recommender target the letter even more. Let's see, got a couple of other questions here. So I'm going to dive in and take these questions. Can you ask a graduate student to write a letter of recommendation? That's a good question. I like to say that you don't have to ask the most prestigious professor in a particular field to write your grad, your letter of recommendation, necessarily have to ask a professor who's even in the same discipline to write your letter of recommendation. Professor doesn't need to be tenured. Could be professor seeking tenure and assistant professor. As long as they know you and know your work well. That's the important thing is possible that a graduate assistant who has been involved in teaching the course that you're in, has a really good grip on your work product because they're the ones maybe who are taking a close look at it. That could be a good recommender. But again, you need to balance that against the credibility of the recommender. So you want the the graduate program to understand your recommender is somebody and understands the academic environment at their graduate school. Maybe a graduate student or a graduate assistant does. I think it's reasonable to ask that student or that graduate assistant whether, you know, how comfortable they are making the recommendation. So I think there's a process to to identifying the right recommender in. And I'd say that if you need some additional assistance on that, again, that's a good, good advising appointments subject. Alright, next question, should identify and ask writers before taking a gap year. I love that question. I think in general, that's a good idea. If you can't. Of course, the work you do during your gap year is also relevant to your application to graduate school. So professors might take a couple of approaches here too. You might ask the professor and they might say, Yes, I'd like to write a letter of recommendation and I want to write it now while you're still at Cornell. Okay, Great. Get them the materials now. They can write it now. You could talk to them and say, Would you be willing to update the letter later on with additional information about what I do during my gap year? I'd say. Sure. And in that case, you probably want to stay in conversation with that professor over the course of your gap year. Maybe update them once in awhile. Here's where I'm working. Here's the nature of the work that I'm doing, it even. Now. Here's a memo I wrote for work or here's a research paper I've been working on, or g, We just published this group I'm involved, which is published this article. Take a look. Bad helps the professor incorporate your current work into their opinion about your, your academic work. If on the other hand, here out of Cornell already, for example, and that you haven't already asked for a letter of recommendation. You can certainly look back to your professors are at Cornell and ask them to be recommenders, be prepared to, to send them more recent work product as well. Because that'll help them to to be as up-to-date as possible when interacting and letters. So if you can identify them now, I would if that's not possible, I wouldn't be shy about getting back in touch with professors and talking them. And again, if you're, if you're out a year, two or more, you are probably doing some really good work. Outside of Cornell. There may be some people out there who could be good recommenders are not your undergraduate professors. You do still want to think about credibility. Do they understand the academic environment? If that seems a little more tenuous, sometimes you, you can, you can help them again with those bullet points. In your cover email when you're sending them materials about you, where you can kind of guide them. Here's what I understand to be the key skills that the graduate program might be interested in. Here's the work I've done that demonstrates I have those skills. Sometimes that can be helpful as well. Alright, I'm an advance the slide here appreciate all these questions. Please don't hesitate to ask more if you have them. We've talked a little bit about who to ask. So I think I have covered this. Yes, I think I have. So I think we've gone gone through these matters. And again, I just want to emphasize the last thing i've, I've written here and last bullet point, no one recommender is probably going to meet all of these different criteria. So look for someone who meets as many of these as possible. And that's going to hopefully be sufficient. All right, writing essays and I know we're getting close to time here. This will be something that we would cover an individual advising. And also we do some other workshops related to writing essays that I'd encourage you to attend. But if you're applying for a research degree, you'll probably be asked to write a statement of purpose. In other graduate settings, you might be asked to write a personal statement. I think I've bullet-pointed here some, some important considerations. I want to kinda go off the page for a second and talk about the statement of purpose. In particular, AS though because I think it could inform how you would approach a personal statement. Sometimes I think it's helpful to think about a statement of purpose as addressing sort of three areas. The first really is, tell us about the great work you've done so far. Second, maybe. Tell us about the work you want to do in the future after you get your graduate degree. The third might be, tell us how our graduate program will help you to do that work you want to do in the future. I think if you can address those three topics in your statement of purpose and sometimes in your personal statement. You're really advancing your costs. Many times what the graduate programs are looking for is fit. Are you a good fit for their graduate program? In his era? Is their graduate program a good fit for you? I think by answering those three questions, you're getting pretty close to demonstrating fit. A personal statement can differ a little bit from that, because very often what's being asked to do there is, you know, it's an opportunity to introduce yourself to the graduate program and a positively differentiate yourself from other applicants. Personal statement also can be really very much about you. So talking about observations you personally made, lived experience, you have experiences, you actually have that those are good starting points. If you find yourself kind of drifting into a discussion of external things like issues or, or, or the great background of a mentor you've had. Sometimes that means you're being dragged away from it. A personal statement and in, into more of an academic type of discussion which, which isn't necessarily what these programs are looking for. So this is sort of the two formats that you'll be probably confronting. It's important to do a couple of things. Be responsive to any prompt that you have. So if there's a prompt for your, your essay, you're there, you're going to submit. Make sure you're responding to what they're asking for. One other thing to keep in mind as sort of a preparation for writing essays is journaling. Now I talk about journaling and it's kinda funny because I don't personally journal. But I think in this case, even for somebody who doesn't do a lot of journaling, this can be a good practice. Maybe start by giving yourself a distinct period of time. Maybe it could be just a couple of days. It could be a week, it could be a couple of months depending on how much time you have. But write down ideas that you think you'd want to convey to a graduate program. And make that an active list. So you're, you're adding ideas, but also if an idea stops resonating with you, strike that idea from the list. And hopefully what happens over the period of time that you've given yourselves and journal is you can start to distill those ideas down, do a core set that you want to communicate to a graduate school. And maybe that core set of ideas, maybe you've started to think about vignettes that you can build around those ideas, short stories that illustrate those ideas. If you can do that, then by the time you sit down to write an essay or a personal statement or statement of purpose, the job might be less sort of coming up with what to say. And more. Generating a theme that ties us vignettes together. And that can be a little bit more rewarding than just having to come up with the entire content of the essay all at once. So maybe something to think about in the end you're aiming for is a clear, succinct statement, showing your enthusiasm and your determination for the field of study that you're choosing. And for that particular graduate school. All right, So we've talked a little bit about this is, these are some approaches to, to essay writing. Again, this is something I can talk about it in more detail in workshops about essay writing and also in an advising appointment. Alright, some takeaways. This is really just an introduction to the application process. We are here for you at Cornell Career Services and in career services offices across the college to help you navigate this process. And I would encourage you also to attend graduate school day graduate school and professional school day on Tuesday, September 28th. But I'm happy now. I think we're we're a little bit past time, but I'm happy to stick around if there are any questions and and ask them now on okay, I see a new question. Do you need to have a draft of your essay completed before asking for a letter of recommendation. I'm so glad you asked that question. Definitely not. I think the process of asking for a letter of recommendation is more organic than that, really has to do, like I said, with can, you know, building that relationship with the professor. And then eventually asked me to write a letter of recommendation. Had that point, if the professor says yes, the professor may guide you in what, what materials they'd like to see from you. So they may say, Hey, be great if you could show me a draft of your essay. Fantastic. Try to create some reasonable expectations around how long it will take you to, to create that draft. Build that into your conversation with the professor. Again, hopefully you're doing this relatively early in your process. So there isn't this deadline approaching that makes it hard for, for everyone, for you to create the graph for the professor to write the letter. So what I would say to you is, if a professor asks you for a draft of the essay, the answer of course is yes. I'll provide that by tried to, tried to build in enough time for you to write a reasonable draft. Also know that they probably don't mean I need to see the absolute polished final product. They're probably just looking for themes and ideas that they can incorporate into their letter of recommendation. All right, question, how do I find more information about the grad school day? We are sending out messaging about that through Handshake. So a couple of ways you can just go on a handshake and search events for graduate and professional school day. You'll find it and you'll be able to register there. If you're on Handshake and, and you go to your profile, you can signal an interest in graduate school. And that will mean that you'll get our targeted messaging about graduate school and professional school day and the other workshops that we that we provide. And if that just isn't working, contact Cornell Career Services, either by email or by phone. And we'll get to the registration information that you need, but thank you for asking about that. All right. Are there any other questions I know again, we're a little bit over time, but I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have. Okay. I'm not seeing any right now. Thank you so much for attending today. I really appreciate the opportunity to share this information. I'd encourage you to contact me for additional advising services and also to reach out to other resources on campus at career services offices and of course, to your professors. Hopefully, we'll all have a chance to talk again soon. Thank you.