Dean, director offer grad school pointers

As the graduation date gets ever closer for seniors and juniors, some students are wondering about what will inevitably follow. For some students dissatisfied with their major or looking to earn a little more graduate school is an option, but before deciding where to go – or whether to go at all – students should take some things into consideration, VCU adminstrators say.

Mark Schaefermeyer, director of graduate recruitment and admissions, said students deciding to attend graduate school should make sure they’re doing it for the right reasons.

“I think you should go to graduate school not because there’s nothing else to do,” he said, “but because you’re looking for deeper knowledge.”

Other, less philosophical aspects of the experience need to be factored in as well.

Schaefermeyer said students interested in graduate school need to examine things like cost, geographic location and the faculty at the school.

F. Douglas Boudinot, dean of graduate studies, echoed Schaefermeyer’s comments, and said students need to examine the program their interested in at different universities.

“Graduate programs at different universities with the same name may offer different course work and areas of study.”

For example, a program that focuses on human genetics at one university may emphasize the mapping out of the human genome while a program with the same name at another university might focus on gene therapy.

Another area students might want to examine is a universitiy’s number of assistantships – programs that allow graduate students to work as teaching or research assistants in exchange for a lower tuition or a stipend.

Shaefermeyer said the assistantships he got during his years in graduate school were invaluable.

“I wouldn’t have been able to get through without assistantships,” he said.

However, some students might decide that after four or more years doing undergraduate studies it’s time to get out into the working world. Boudinot suggests that even they take the Graduate Record Examination – more commonly known as the GRE.

“The GRE is good for five years after you take it – so if you get out and find a job, and after two years you decide you want a change you can still use your GRE scores to apply for grad schools.”

He also suggested that students interested in graduate school start looking during the fall of their junior year, since that’s when many schools are hosting graduate school exhibitions and since applications are usually due either late in the fall or very early in the spring.