I’ve finally been prompted enough to share some knowledge I’ve learned about applying to grad schools. This has been my experience applying to chemistry schools mostly in the US, and may not be representative for other disciplines or countries. Some of it should be transferrable, though. With that out of the way, let’s start with the basics.

Should I apply for a master’s, a PhD, or neither?

This question is probably covered in more detail elsewhere. If you have an idea of what career you want, you should find out how each degree would impact that sort of career. If you want to be a technician, having a master’s degree or a PhD is probably irrelevant and won’t appreciably improve your career prospects. If you want a research job, on the other hand, having a PhD is necessary for long-term growth. The summary from my perspective seems to be that many jobs have low ceilings and low pay for bachelor’s and master’s degree holders, and much higher pay and promotion opportunities. But again, it is worthwhile to tailor your path to fit the career you want – being overqualified is just as pointless as being underqualified.

I want to go to grad school. Where should I apply?

That’s a loaded question. First of all, you need to think about what you are prioritizing. People will often prioritize moving to a city that they enjoy, moving/staying in a city with friends or family, or going to a university/professor with high prestige. All of these are valid; which one should come first really depends on you and your career paths. If you know you don’t want to be a professor, then you may want to move to a city that already contains the jobs you want – being able to network in person is invaluable. Or you could move to a city you enjoy, and take advantage of that outside of work. If you want to become a professor (keeping in mind that very few PhD graduates become professors, for a multitude of reasons) then it is more important to go to a high ranking university and/or work for a well regarded professor.

That makes sense, but…I still don’t know where to apply

If you aren’t sure what you want to prioritize, then you could make a little buffet of schools to apply to. You could pick some that would set you up well for an academic position later, and some that would set you up better for a non-academic position. You don’t need to have the rest of your career decided before you even finish undergrad. But similar to applying for undergrad, you will want to apply for a few “reach” schools, some schools that you have a reasonable chance of getting into, and a few that should be very easy. You can classify these based on the rankings in your discipline, and to some degree based on your grades and the research work you have done (or not done) in your undergrad. Applying to 10-12 is hard work but reasonable, if you can afford all the application fees. If you can’t afford the application fees, reach out to the program coordinators – some of them will waive fees, especially if you are in certain programs like the Amgen Scholars program. 

I *finally* have a list of schools to apply for. How do I narrow down the list?

If any of the schools are in places that you hate, strike those from the list immediately. Even if the school is world famous, if you are miserable there’s a nonzero chance you don’t finish the program. So be kind to yourself and don’t put yourself in that situation. For all the ones left, make sure they are reasonable grad programs. This means they should guarantee full funding for your PhD (~5 years) and that the stipend is enough to live on. I strongly recommend only applying to schools that do rotations, since a lab can seem like utopia until you join, see all the drama and favoritism, toxicity etc. Rotations allow you to move to a healthier environment. Next, briefly look up the lab websites of some faculty in the departments you would apply to. You don’t need to read papers, just skim the website. Does this sort of work interest you and make you excited? Or does it bore you? If there are no faculty whose work interests you, move on. Only keep schools on your list if there are 3+ faculty whose work interests you. Once you have filtered your list again, pick the schools that you REALLY want to apply to. If this makes 10-12 schools, you have your final list right there. If you still need more schools, pick the one in the best city, the one closest to your favorite friends/family, and the best ranking school, and add those to your “apply” list. With that, you probably have a good final list.

I’m ready to apply. What do these schools care about most?

From the conversations I’ve had with professors and application committee members, they seem to care about your undergrad research most of all. That means you should focus on this in your application essays, and ask letter writers to comment on your research (and certainly ask your research advisor(s) to write you letters of recommendation). Next, they care about the letters of recommendation. It can be helpful to your letter writers to show them your application essays and explicitly tell them what you would like them to comment on. Perhaps you did something really cool but odd in undergrad – if you write about this and a letter writer comments about it as well, it will be a lot more convincing to selection committee members than if you alone write about it. Distantly, they next care about GRE scores (for the schools that even take the GRE) and about undergrad grades. Several grad school selection members told me that they have an internal cutoff for GRE scores and grades, and anybody who passes the cutoff stays in the selection round, but receives no further benefit even if they have perfect scores. Thus someone who got straight A’s in undergrad would not be considered a stronger candidate than someone who barely made the GPA cutoff. Interestingly, these committee members said that their school posted a GPA cutoff online, but that they used a different, more stringent cutoff internally. Apparently the public GPA cutoff was just for exceptional candidates with a low GPA, and the selection committee members would need to be personally notified not to dismiss the person’s application (by another professor, I presume). 

I’ve applied. Now what?

Most schools will have their application due dates be in the fall, give interviews in the winter and ask you to decide by spring. If you have been accepted before the interview, you don’t need to stress but don’t act stupid in the interview or in the social events outside of the interview – schools can retract your acceptance if they see unacceptable behavior. If you have not been accepted before the interview, treat it as a competitive interview and read up on the professors who will be interviewing you, learn more about the school/program, and crystallize your reasons for applying to their department. Say these during the interviews to show that you are serious about their specific program.

Before everyone and their momma runs out of the woods to scream THIS HAS NOT BEEN MY EXPERIENCE well I’ve got to say that your experience has not been my experience either. What I’ve written is only what I have seen and isn’t going to cover every experience out there. But hopefully it is helpful in getting you thinking about different choices and possibilities. Much of what I've written about here has come from my experience with the Amgen Scholars program, which I would highly recommend. Apart from that, I went out of my way to query professors and committee members on the inner workings of the application process. Their wisdom has been similarly invaluable.