<aside> 📅 Planning out your schedule for applying to grad schools

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Calendars

• put your application deadlines on a calendar and make sure to set weekly notifications to know when they are coming up
• share the referee deadlines with your references as well, References
• add program information sessions to your calendar as well, and do your best to attend them!

Application Timeline

• you always want to try and submit your applications early !
• extended school breaks (ex: reading week, winter break) are a great time to grind out your applications
• here is a general rough timeline of my grad school applications
  • as a result, I was able to submit all of my grad school applications early during winter break!

assess grad school programs (i.e. see if I was interested in applying to them) and putting their key facts on a Notion page (see ‣)

made application checklists for what I had to do for each program I was interested in (ex: references, cover letters, etc.)

reach out to potential referees to see if they’d be interested in writing a reference for me | | Fall Semester | cold messaging students in the programs I was interested in, via LinkedIn (see ‣)

have coffee chats (virtual) with people in the program I was applying to

brainstorm ideas for what to write on my resume + CV

• I am a bit of perfectionist when it comes to my writing, so my first draft always end up being a massive brainstorm with new ideas
• having a notes app on my phone really helped me document new ideas whenever I was not at my computer → I could add new ideas on the go, and add them to my application whenever I was back at my computer

read lots of online resources about writing resumes, cover letters, and how to make my application stand out

creating a reference package for my references References (my package ended up being 10+ pages!) | | Winter Break | focus on writing applications

wrote drafts of my cover letters and CV

refining drafts of my resume and CV

having friends + family read over my drafts

obtaining all the required documentation for my programs and uploading them (ex: transcripts)

following up with my references about the status of their reference letters (if they were not complete yet)

submitting all of my grad school applications! |