Admissions Blog

I fear I may have buried the “homework” I’ve assigned you to prepare to apply to Fletcher and, ultimately, select your graduate school. Please be sure to check out all these posts and give yourself the best chance for a low-stress application process and worry-free enrollment decision.

Today we’ll close out the Prep for App/Prep for April tips. Before Kristen and Dan give you their thoughts on how to gather information, I want to share two items. The first is that the application for 2018-19 enrollment is open now. Whether you want to sit down and conquer it in one session (probably not advised) or start by poking around and seeing what questions you’ll be answering, take a look!

Second, I want to point you toward this very thoughtful New York Times column that Kristen sent my way. The author has done a lot of research and writing on college admissions and the college experience. You might wonder why I would highlight an article that is targeted toward undergraduates. Well, I’ll bet that some blog readers are undergrads. But also, much of the advice is equally relevant for graduate students. Wherever you end up, get to know your professors, remember to sleep, take some risks.

Okay. On to the advice.

I know it seems like plenty of time — Admissions decisions will be released by all your schools in March, and you’ll need to make your enrollment decision by April 20 for Fletcher, and around that time for your other schools. Five weeks (more or less) to think it all through — easy peasy, right? Well… It should be very straightforward: gather all your data, plan a visit or more, make a decision. Done! Enjoy your summer! But year after year, we hear from folks who find themselves scrambling on April 19, still collecting information, feeling extremely stressed, and unable to make the final decision on a school or program. So, friends, let my Admissions pals guide you to avoid that fate. First, Liz has a suggestion for an info-gathering opportunity.

As I mentioned last Monday, the theme (in my mind, at least) of the posts for these two weeks is Prep for App/Prep for April. That is, you can probably put together a perfectly fine application with little advance thought, but the admissions process will go so much more smoothly for you if you first take some foundational steps. Similarly, you can go from January to March without giving any thought to which graduate school you’d most like to attend if admitted, but the process of making your decision by the April 20 enrollment deadline will be so much more productive and less stressful if you have done your research first.