Graduate School
Preparing for Graduate School
Some career paths require graduate degrees and careful planning. Other career paths may not require a graduate degree, or at least not right away. Decide at least a year in advance! The Career Services Office can help you to prepare. From explaining time lines, to providing information on entrance tests, to preparing applications and recommendations.
Graduate degrees provide access to many careers and allow students to gain post-baccalaureate knowledge about a specific discipline, specialization or industry. For example, teachers in New York must complete a Master’s degree to become professionally certified; social workers must earn an MSW to practice; medical professionals must get licensed; academic faculty achieve access to tenure-track teaching through PhDs in their discipline. Other industries may encourage earning graduate degrees in order to advance. Not everyone goes to grad school immediately following undergrad or even full-time. You have options. Planning is key.
Each person's decision should be based upon career goals and the graduate school options available. Explore options. Read about programs, talk to academic faculty and Career Services staff about possibilities. Application procedures vary, and almost all graduate programs will require letters of recommendation from faculty. Be sure to give faculty plenty of time to craft outstanding recommendations for your applications. Have a solid resume ready to share with faculty to help them address important aspects in their letters.
The following links provide important information about graduate school:
Graduate School Resources
By visiting the links below, you are going to a site outside the SUNY Cortland Career Services website:
- Peterson's Guide to Grad Schools
- GradSchools.com
- GradSource.com
- Testing Information