Pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. in SOC

 

Additional Graduate School Insight from Director of Graduate

Admissions, Kristen Trapasso, Le Moyne College

 

By Jess Maggi, 09, Newsletter Editor

 

Pre-Graduate School
The first step on the road to life after undergrad is figuring out what you want to do, what your personal goals are. Not everyone with a Bachelors degree in Sociology wants to become a sociology professor. In fact, Kristen Trapasso received her Bachelor’s in Sociology before going on to pursue a Masters in Education—not in teaching, but in education administration—and is now the Director of Graduate Admissions at Le Moyne College.

According to Kristen, exploring a variety of career fields is an ideal way to do this. Start by conducting informational interviews with people in your field or area of interest. Your academic advisor, a professor whose classes coincide with your interests, your career service office or even your parents’ friends are great places to find potential career contacts.

Another often untapped resource is your alumni office. Alumni of your school understand where you are coming from because at one time they were in the position you are in now. They generally are extremely willing to have informal conversations about how they got to where they are in their careers. Plus, there are probably alumni out there with your degree doing things that you never imagined.

This allows you to identify specific areas of interest in which you can then seek internships, volunteer work or employment opportunities. Working in your field of interest helps you discover what kind of work you enjoy doing. For example, as an undergraduate Kristen interned in the admissions office at her school, loved it and ended up pursuing similar work as a career. I, on the other hand, interned at a lobbyist organization and realized ultimately that I do not want to work in politics.

Graduate School
Doing this—finding a direction, researching and showing initiative—is so important because you should only go to graduate school if it will help you reach your personal goals. It is fairly common today for students to consider graduate school because they don’t know what they want to do or because they are not yet ready to be a part of the real world. But Kristen says this is a mistake because integrating yourself into the real world, even while you are still an undergraduate, is the best way to discover what you want to do with your life.

Also, it is fairly common to switch career tracks as a graduate student—think Bachelors in Theatre Arts to Masters in Business Administration—as long as you meet the prerequisites, which is especially important in medical fields. However, you don’t always have to meet the requirements exactly. Often graduate schools will admit students who may not have a great G.P.A. but who have great experience. Similarly, some schools will admit students conditionally, giving you a chance to prove yourself as a graduate student. If you are concerned about entrance exam scores, Kristen says to ask a school how much weight these will be given. In some cases they will be given little consideration and can be overlooked. However, some schools weigh these exams heavily in admissions criteria as the only standardized way of comparing candidates.

Throughout the process remain professional, even in an informal setting. Kristen absolutely understands that a different kind of insight can be gained from talking to a person as opposed to getting information from a website but she still has little patience for prospective students who call her with questions but have not taken the time to explore the program on their own. She wants to talk to a student who has taken initiative, who is aware of the prerequisites, even if he or she does not meet them exactly. And, she says, she will write your name down and remember whether or not she was impressed or less than impressed with you even during an informal phone conversation.

The Application
As undergraduates we are always being told that we need to stand out in our applications and resumes (do this by following Kristen’s suggestions above!). However, when filling out an application it is equally important to be sincere—especially in an essay or letter of intent. Having read thousands of graduate school applications over the years Kristen says that she can tell in a second if an applicant is being sincere—and will reject anyone who she thinks is disingenuous.   

 

Also, grammar and punctuation are very important. Applicants are often aware that their essay needs to be error free but this should not come at the expense of the application itself. Spend time perfecting all pieces of your application—it is a reflection of you.

 

Despite all of this, exploring your future should be fun and exciting. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or try things that you are unfamiliar with. As Kristen says, take the initiative to achieve your goals.