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Dear Dot,
I am a junior at Marquette and, based on my career goals and advice from my advisor, I plan on attending graduate school for Marine Biology. I am so overwhelmed because I know I need to take a test soon, but I don’t know which one. I also have no idea what schools offer this degree and what they require for admission to their programs. What steps should I take to make it through the application process smoothly?
Cathy D.
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Dear Cathy,
For anyone applying to graduate or professional school, the first thing I suggest is to determine what type of program you would like to pursue and then visit gradschools.com. This is a great website that allows you to start searching for graduate school programs, read about the programs that interest you, and follow links to the program websites. It is generally helpful to have some specific criteria in mind to guide your decision making process and help narrow your list of schools.
The research you conduct on different programs will help you determine which admissions exam you need to take. Generally testing requirements are as follows (but check each specific program’s requirements to be sure):
• General Graduate Programs: www.gre.org
• Law School: www.lsat.org
• Medical School: www.aamc.org/students/mcat/start.htm
• Business School: www.mba.com
• Professional Programs: www1.kaplan.com
To make this process less overwhelming, I suggest making a spreadsheet that includes the names of all of the schools you will be applying to, required tests, deadlines, and other requirements that you can check off as you complete them.
Good luck!
Dot
If you have career-related questions you would like Dot to answer, please e-mail them to career.services@marquette.edu with “Dot” in the subject line.
