Useful Downloads
This excel document is the document I used when organizing all of my applications. Because I was applying to 19 places, I needed this level of organization.
There are several "worksheets" in the document that I will explain here.
- School Score
On this sheet I attempt to draw a numerical score for each school, for how badly I would like to go there. I have assigned factors for 1st potential advisor, 2nd potential advisor, other faculty in the dept, course/graduation requirements, reputation/US news ranking, location, stipend, and "feel". The faculty are rated based on how well my interests match with theirs, as well as what I can gather about the quality of their advising, size of lab, etc. The "feel" column I filled in after visiting the school, and was based on things like friendliness and quality of the graduate students, how collaborative the dept was, etc. Above each of these columns I put weights for how much I wanted to count each of these factors when tallying the score. The total score on the right is composed of a forumla based on these weights. I edited the formula directly to change the weights. (That is, where you see "weights" listed across the top, changing these values does not change the forumla.)
- Prof rate
If you have the time, here is where you can rank each professor based on these categories, and that way you have a fair way of comparing professors across schools when you plug them into the school score page.
- SOP questions
On this page I kept track of what all of the questions were for the personal statements for each school I was applying to. This was useful because then I wouldn't have to keep looking back to their respective applications in order to work on this hardest part of the application. Also, I could identify which questions were similar and could therefore have very similar responses.
- applications to do
Once you start the applications, this will be the most important page for you to use because it keeps track of everything you need to do. The columns I have include websites both for the department (you'll need this for looking up content for your SOP) and the application, as well as a column for each stage of the process, like sending transcripts, GRE scores, letters of rec, and of course the personal statement. I also sorted the schools by the due date of their applications. I also stored passwords and login IDs here for easy access to the online applications. Each school organizes their application processes differently, so it's very important to have some file similar to this one in which you keep track of the rules of each place.
- Addresses
Here you can keep track of addresses of where to send things. Some schools have two addresses because they require that some materials be sent to the graduate school, and some to the department.
- School correspondence
If you are e-mailing professors, keep track of your correspondence here. Who do you have left to write? Has the professor responded? Is he/she taking students? etc.
- Program Notes
I imported this page from microsoft word. It is where I kept general notes on the schools. Write down here what you can't keep track of quantitatively in the "school score" page.
- School Data
I took these data from the Psychology APA book. Here I could tell roughly what a program was looking for in terms of GRE scores and grades. If your programs list data like these, you can make a page like this to keep track of them. However, keep in mind that your particular case may not follow the data. That is, unlike in college, graduate admissions are hard to predict. You might get into the school with the lowest acceptance rate and highest average GPA/GREs, but get rejected from one of your so-called "safeties". Research match is always the most important factor in graduate admissions, and that includes whether or not the professor(s) you're applying to work with is/are taking students.
I used this document to give to my professors for them to organize sending reference letters. Along with this document I wrote them letters with instructions, and gave them my cv. Be nice to your recommenders -- they are doing you an enormous favor!
Here is the C.V., in document format, that I used when I applied for graduate school back in the fall of 2004. C.V.'s are usually optional, but I highly recommend making one up when you apply!
Here is an example statement of purpose. It is roughly what I used when applying to graduate school, but it is made generic and commented for your use. Warning: do not copy any part of this statement. My website gets a lot of attention and you will be discovered by the admissions committee and you will be rejected.
Here is a template for writing an e-mail to get in touch with professors as you are beginning to apply to graduate school. One could even modify it to be used for prior to the admissions year in which you are applying (such as if you want to get in touch with a professor during your junior year of college.)
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