For those Undergrads who have Grad School on their mind

This is just some advice from a current grad school student on what you should work on and (more importantly) what you should not work on during your undergrad years if grad school is your aim. I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in Computer Science at Brown University and while I was applying to all these various grad school programs there was a constant frustration (maybe ‘frustration’ is too heavy a word, but I guess you get my point) on what all things I could have done better during my undergrad along with the sporadic moments of relief thinking about things I did right. So here it goes, my unstructured ramblings about how to prepare for grad school (take all advice here with a large pinch of salt)…

If you would like to join a grad program right after undergrad you would be looking at applying towards the start of your 4th year, i.e. October-December (assuming you are pursuing a 4-year degree). Keep preparing for any exam (GRE, TOEFL/IELTS) as your last priority, prepare and appear for these exams probably 4-6 months before you start applying.

Now, moving to what you can do during your undergraduate program.

Build Research acumen: Aim for research internships during your semester breaks under, hopefully, reputed professors else reputed institutions and most importantly in areas of interest. Try to build a coherent research profile.

Showcase Research skills: Publish, publish, publish. Try your best to work towards publishing research papers or working as a co-author on other’s papers.

Network: The above 2 areas would help you meet with professors and research engineers. Establish meaningful connections with them so that you can ask them for a letter of recommendation when applying for grad programs.

CGPA: Simply, keep it as high as possible. Treat it as a priority, can’t stress enough. Might sound in all our idealistic heads that CGPA is not a measure of how ready for grad school one is but, to be honest, it is one of the few quantitative measures out there. So be prepared to use it to your benefit.

Know more: Know more about the process by going through blogs, connecting with seniors on LinkedIn, and going through program websites of different grad programs. The more info you have about a program the more it would convince you to apply or for that matter to not apply to it. And the more genuine interest you have the easier (or even effortless) it would be for you to showcase it on your Statement of Purpose while applying.

Learn and don’t forget to have fun: It’s appreciable you are planning for your future goals but don’t forget to enjoy your college life and to just LEARN both inside and outside the class.

That’s all I got for now. Just go for it, things will eventually fall in place!