Dear Veeky Forums

Dear Veeky Forums,

How do I prepare for graduate school? How do I make sure that I get into a good program with a good advisor? What do they look for?


Thanks,
user

Don't study in post-Brexit Britain.

>What do they look for?

Research potential trumps almost everything, but you can get in without it based on grades and good letters.


>How do I make sure that I get into a good program

Do your fucking research.

>How do I prepare for graduate school?

Start drinking rolling rock now so you're accustomed to the taste.

>Start drinking rolling rock now so you're accustomed to the taste.
What if you're British and probably (as of Brexit) going to have to aim for Europe?

...

How much effort should I put into studying for the GRE?

general? almost none whatsoever unless you're a shitty writer. subject? i can only speak for mathematics but you should take practice tests, timed, and see how well you do and study up if you do poorly.

Thank you, user. I shall start readying myself for the prerequisite now.

Do engineers or computer scientists typically take the math or physics subject tests? I'm an ME but my undergrad research is pretty CS-heavy, so switching fields isn't entirely out of the question.

Godspeed Anonymous.

>i can only speak for mathematics
>do engineers and CS people blah blah blah

It's an open question to whoever knows the answer.

How do I get good references and research experience if I had very poor grades in my first year of study? Only in my third year but my first was so poor that my second didn't have any hope of redeeming it.

Should I just say goodbye to grad school if I fucked up one year? Don't most profs look at GPA before hiring for research positions, even unpaid ones?

>How do I get good references and research experience

By working closely with professors who have active research projects and don't know, or give a fuck, how stoned you got freshman year.

You don't "get hired" for these, although some profs might do it like that. Mostly they give you a few papers and tell you to come back when you've read them and then you chat and they ask you to do work if they think you're good and tell you to fuck off to some other prof otherwise.

>Should I just say goodbye to grad school if I fucked up one year?

No, but you should look at schools realistically. You probably won't be going to MIT or whatever.

Thanks, should I just send out some e-mails to my profs asking if I could meet with them about research?

I'm in Canada anyways, hope I can redeem myself with some quality research and last few years of undergrad.

Thanks for the help again, appreciate it. This shit makes me really nervous.

You should, your life is based upon the measure of successes. If you have none, or little to none, you are a worthless human being and deserve a quick coup de grâce.

Yes I quickly realised that in my second year and went from a 2.0 to a 4.3, better to get the partying out late rather than never. I had a pretty sheltered upbringing.

>Thanks, should I just send out some e-mails to my profs asking if I could meet with them about research?

Yes. You can look at their websites for what their research is in and whether it looks interesting. You don't have to be able to read their recent publications but you should be able to guess whether you would like doing stuff like that.

Also you'll have better luck with profs in whose classes you have done well if possible.

Furthermore, don't be afraid to ask your profs and advisors for help applying to grad school. Mine were an infinitely more helpful resource than the internet and I had a largely good experience in grad school.

>This shit makes me really nervous.

Your grad school should be free. Look at it like getting an awesome present for free. If you don't get it, you're no worse off than you were before, and you can try again next year after beefing up your CV. But yeah, it's nerve wracking. You gotta suck it up.

For the record, I got into my program with no undergrad research experience at all, although I didn't fuck up freshman year.

>college
>4.3

is this some canadian thing? in america you only get above a 4.0 in high school

On that tangent; why is it now morally unacceptable to physically punish or execute failures; it worked well in the classical period?

Luckily in Canada grad schools only care about your most recent two years of undergrad, so I haven't really tanked myself yet. Just need to get a hold of two reference letters and not fuck up from now on.

Was your program in engineering by any chance?

Just at my school, it's stupid. 4.0 is given for 85-89.9 and a 4.3 for 90+

>Luckily in Canada grad schools only care about your most recent two years of undergrad, so I haven't really tanked myself yet. Just need to get a hold of two reference letters and not fuck up from now on.

You'll be fine user, and I was in mathematics.

Huddle either under sturdy furniture or inside a door jamb until it is over.

What was so bad about it?