Program Subcommittee (Northern)

Financing Graduate Education

This session will focus on the resources available to finance a graduate education. Special emphasis will be placed on campus based and external fellowship support that is available as students advance in their graduate programs. Included in this workshop are ways in which students can effectively negotiate their financial awards, and options available at the dissertation and post-doctoral stages of their graduate school experience.

Demystifying the GRE

This seminar will provide students a framework for preparing for the GRE. We'll discuss how the GRE is used by admissions committees and talk about what the GRE scores mean. Most of the seminar will focus on a) how to put together an effective overall preparation strategy for getting competitive GRE scores, b) how to manage test-related apprehension and anxiety, and c) explaining the role of techniques from coaching companies like Princeton Review.

Preparing for the GRE

This seminar will introduce students to the Princeton Review's approaches, techniques, and strategies for dealing with GRE verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing sections. An overview of the GRE will be provided, and then a few specific techniques for tackling GRE questions will be presented.

How to Select and Apply to Graduate School

This workshop will discuss the merits of graduate school, the nuts and bolts of applying, and everything you need to know to submit a strong application.

Discipline-based panels: (Physical Sciences/Math, Life Sciences, Engineering/Computer Science, Social Sciences, Humanities/Arts, and Education)

Different disciplines have different norms and ways of operating.  These panels are intended to provide students with an understanding of various aspects of graduate study within a given discipline area.   For each of the discipline areas listed above, panelists offer insights on such topics as how to prepare strategically for admission into a graduate program within the discipline area, what a graduate program entails (content, workload, process, time to degree), and career options (including a snapshot of the life of a faculty member).  Panelists are almost always faculty members (usually three per panel).  They are asked to direct their remarks toward their specific disciplines (e.g. physics) without focusing too specifically on their own departments and their idiosyncrasies.  In order to have breadth of views, panel organizers are advised to make sure the panelists are from different departments within the discipline (e.g., for Social Sciences:  Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology).

Keys to Success and Survival in Graduate School

This panel permits students to hear directly from current graduate students about their experiences in graduate school -- the problems they have encountered and the solutions they have found to solve them.  Topics may include coping with isolation and finding support groups, cultivating academic and personal mentors, inside tips and strategies for passing qualifying exams, and successful time management.  In view of the differences among science, engineering, and non-science fields, panel organizers are advised to make sure panels have graduate students from different discipline areas.  Advanced graduate students or postdocs are usually better equipped to provide the needed advice than beginning graduate students.

Statement of Purpose (SOP) Workshop

The goal of this workshop is to help students understand the role of the SOP, the value of investing time into developing a strong SOP, and also the necessary components of a SOP. The key objectives are as follows: (1) explain the role of the SOP in a graduate school application package (2) outline basic components of SOP (3) timeline/strategies for writing a strong SOP (examples of what to do and what not to do) (4) additional items as appropriate: demystify rumors about SOP

The 411 on Undergraduate Research Programs

The goal of this workshop is to help students build a solid foundation for understanding the basics of an undergraduate research program. Information that will be covered includes: application components, program components, timelines, web sites and helpful resources, benefits of participating in such a program, and how to choose the right program for oneself.

Relation of the Master's Degree to the Ph.D.

Students often pose these questions:  What's the difference between a Master's program and a Ph.D. program? Should I get a Master's degree first or go straight in to a Ph.D program?  This workshop helps to demystify the role of the master's degree both as a stand alone degree and its relationship to the doctorate. Students will hear from presenters from Ph.D. granting institutions, such as the UC and certain private and independent universities,  as well as those that award up to the Master's, particularly the CSU. Among the questions answered: What careers can I have with a Master's degree? What is the transferability of a Master's program to a Ph.D. program? Should I earn a Master's degree first? Will a Ph.D. program give me credit for my master's work? How much time will it take to earn a Master's? What is involved in earning a master's in terms of course work and thesis?