4 Ways Grad School Prep Differs From Undergrad

By Ian Acosta on November 17, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

Graduate school is a big step in anyone’s educational career. With it, a lot more is asked of any applicant trying to achieve a higher degree such as time commitment, testing, finances and planning where to live.

To that end, preparation for all the more minor details of graduate school will be different than undergrad. How different? Well, here are four ways in which preparation for graduate school life differs from going off to college for the first time.

1. Testing

As most, if not all college students know, the undergrad admissions process was a daunting one. In terms of campus visits to colleges and universities across the land, countless SAT and ACT prep classes to ace the commonly used aptitude tests, and numerous detailed essays about their “unique” high school experiences, the whole process spans multiple months and countless hours of time to commit to schools that some might not even attend.

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The graduate admissions process asks even more. In terms of testing, some aspiring graduate students may need to take the GRE or GMAT while others may require the LSAT or MCAT for the future lawyers and doctors of the world, respectively. Many decide to start this process of preparing for these much more difficult tests during their junior year or even as early as their sophomore year. Not only that, some programs require an interview, previous professional experience and various letters of recommendation and referrals.

The difference is clear, however; the time and effort needed to prepare for the graduate school process is exponentially more difficult than a mere SAT or ACT test. To that end, the process is much more selective making the need to study and excel that much more paramount.

2. Living Arrangements

Every college student remembers the joys of moving off to college for the first time: The excitement of being independent for the first time; the newfound responsibilities that came with living away from home; the always delicious and never repetitive dining hall food. With these fond memories came a sense of new beginning and belonging in a brand-new environment that all undergraduates immerse themselves in.

However, for graduate students, this transition phase is a different process. Instead of dorm rooms and RA’s, graduate students most likely plan for their upcoming apartment lease and how to best plan out their new living space. While undergrads worry about what to get from the dining hall and which general education classes to take, graduate students need to plan for grocery shopping, grueling study hours, and multiple exams per week.

3. Demanding Classwork

Keeping with the theme of studies, some if not most undergrads arrive to their dorms and show up to their first day of class with not a clue of what they would like to study. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 80 percent of students change their major at least once and on average college students switch their major at least three times over the course of their undergraduate career. Undergrads are faced with the very nerve-wracking and stressful decision of what to actually study. This is not an easy choice to narrow down to say the least.

However, graduate students by and large do not face this issue for obvious reasons. They know what they came to school to study for and exactly how to tackle their upper level degree. Is the process easier? By no means. But one very important difference that graduate students do not worry about in their new environment is what to study.

To that end, graduate students can better prepare for when they go off to school by studying their field of study more in-depth, participating in research related to their field, or even taking an entry level job in their field to gain real world experience before attending graduate school.

4. Financial Aid

This area could be a whole other article in and of itself but we’ll touch on a few important points here. Whereas applying for financial aid through FAFSA while in undergrad allows students to apply for various loans and amounts for those loans, for graduate students it is a bit different. For a more detailed brochure of the myths and facts for applying for student aid, look here.

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Some major points to look out for include the amount of money available to borrow, types and forms of loans to apply for and borrow from, and different requirements and uses for each loan. As mentioned, this short recap does not do the whole process justice but the point is that financial aid for undergraduate school has major differences than aid for professional school.

For those that pursue graduate school, congratulations on the journey so far, but there is still more work to come. For those considering graduate school, hopefully this gave some insight on how to prepare for the next step in the educational process.

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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