Applying for Graduate School Timeline
Second Year
- Apply for research apprenticeship, or volunteer in a professor's lab
- Join the Psychology Club
- Look for appropriate literature regarding getting into graduate school
- Maintain highest grades possible in ALL courses
- Meet with advisors and declare major
Third Year
- Becoming involved with faculty research
- Take Psyc 3610
- Become familiar with graduate school admission criteria and degrees offered
- Research area(s) of interest, institutions and programs
- Register and prepare for the G.R.E.
- Investigate scholarships, loans and fellowships
- Obtain experience through volunteering if interested in counselling or clinical psychology
- Investigate summer jobs related to psychology
- Begin studying for Graduate Records Exams (G.R.E.); study for the Psychology sub-test by reviewing a good Introductory Psychology textbook that includes statistics and methodology
- Apply for the Honours program in April
Summer
- Write the G.R.E.
- Write to specific schools for application materials
- Visit schools of interest if possible
- Work on application essay (if applicable)
- Check application deadlines
- Begin to save money for application fees, resumes, transcript costs
- Start to consider individuals you would like to have write your letters of recommendation
Fourth Year
Fall
- Obtain letters of recommendation from professors and other reference people
- Have application essay critiques (if possible)
- Take graduate admission tests(s) if not taken earlier
- Send in completed Graduate school application
- Send in completed financial aid application, complete with application for teaching assistantship or other graduate student support, available at almost all graduate schools
- Check with all schools before the deadlines to make sure your file is complete (letter of recommendation is usually what, if anything, is missing)
Spring
- Keep track of acceptances, wait lists and rejections
- Expect first choice offers to be made by April 1; however, vacancies may occur anytime before September
- Visit schools that accept you
April/May
- Be sure to notify schools that accept you of your decision (to accept or not)
- Send thank you notes to your reference people.
- If you have not been accepted anywhere by April 15 you should:
- Call every school you applied to and request that your application remain active
- Job hunt and re-apply next year
