Identify a Faculty Advisor
To be considered for admission to the graduate program, prospective students must reach out to a potential faculty advisor before applying. In most cases, a faculty member must be willing to take someone into their lab for the applicant to be invited to in-person interviews by the admissions committee.
Before you apply, it is important that you are clear on why you want to pursue a graduate degree and that you can clearly communicate your goals. Any actions that will help you identify and refine your career goals are invaluable. Take advantage of career fairs, networking events, and any informal opportunities to discuss your goals and solicit experiences from students and professionals in your areas of interest. Actively seek information on the palette of career paths that exist. Ask current instructors, advisors, and colleagues about their career paths. Read papers, look at the website of your labs of interest, and perhaps reach out to current lab members to discuss the work itself.
Start thinking about application requirements at least a year before you are planning to apply. In fact, some of the points that strengthen an application need time to happen (e.g., research experience, publications or presentations, application or receipt of awards or small grants, involvement in community-oriented projects).
If you have been involved in research, publish your results and/or present your findings in a poster or talk at a meeting or conference. Demonstrating that you have already interacted with research indicates that you know what you are jumping into. Graduate school in STEM is less about coursework and more about doing original research from ideation to public reporting.
Apply for fellowships in advance of your application to graduate school, such as the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The process of developing your fellowship application will strengthen your graduate application, whether or not you receive the funding. Your application also demonstrates your interest in the process of science and your ability to find knowledge gaps and articulate your ideas. If you are planning to apply for a fellowship, we strongly recommend that you get in touch with your future potential advisor so they can provide insights before you submit your application.
Contact your potential future advisor(s) by email months in advance of the application deadline. It is critically important that you identify potential mentors who are recruiting students and that they develop an interest in recruiting you to their program. Do your research in your area of interest to discover who is doing the work that you are excited about, then send them an email to introduce yourself and ask whether they are recruiting students in the current application cycle. You can also ask your current research advisor to introduce you to potential graduate advisors, but cold emailing is very common.
Excellent, detailed advice is available here to help you prepare your email inquiries. In addition, we urge you to be wary of using a template or generative AI; each email you send should be customized and specific. Provide a brief description of your academic background (institution, degrees, person and project you most recently were working on). Make sure to be polite, use formal forms of address (Dr., Prof.), and proofread your email! Be clear and concise as to why you are writing, but also be specific: why are you contacting this person and this program, what about their research most intrigues you, and what would you bring to the group? Attach your credentials - CV or resume, writing samples (pdf). Finally, be aware that you are emailing people who receive many emails and thus may lose yours, so if they do not respond, send a short (polite) reminder 2-3 weeks after your first contact.
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