My Grad School Application Timeline
A few days ago I got accepted to University of Maryland’s (UMD) Master’s of Information Management (MIM) program. While I’m still deciding if this is definitely the program I want to attend, I’m excited about the program and surprised at the relatively easy admissions process. Compared to applying to college (over a year long process for me) or law school (I only made it about 75% through that process before changing my mind), applying to grad school for a specialized field of study was much easier.
My grad school application timeline went like this:
- Late November/Early December: Started to seriously consider going to grad school for information architecture, interaction design or something similar.
- December: Researched schools, made a short list of programs that might work based on curriculum, location and cost; signed up for the GRE; bought a GRE study book.
- Late December/Early January: Came across UMD’s MIM program, which “meets the growing need organizations have for information professionals who understand the issues of information management; business management; computer science; and information systems.”
- January: Applied to UMD (had a Feb. 1 deadline, but luckily I didn’t have to submit GRE scores); studied for the GRE; took the GRE and did better than I thought I would (around the 80th percentile)
- February: Worked on my list of other programs to apply to; got accepted to UMD’s MIM program on February 10
My entire grad school application process - from deciding to seriously look at programs to getting accepted - was just a little over two months. The process wasn’t stressful and I am confident that this is the right academic path to take for graduate study. When thinking about why this process was so easy compared to the law school application process, I think that the main factor was that the programs I was looking at this time felt right. I don’t have a bachelor’s degree in a related field (I studied Economics and Asian Studies in college), but I’m self-taught/learned “on the job” and find myself continuously wanting to learn more about web development, information management, etc. I enjoy business/communications strategy, so attending a program that also offers management courses is perfect. Law school might have been the right path a few years ago (before I started actively developing my web/computer skill), but it wasn’t right by the time I was ready to apply to law schools.
Although I could have made the process longer by starting to apply earlier, applying to more schools, studying for the GRE for months and letting myself stress more in general, I’m glad that I didn’t. As someone that likes to plan major things (like grad school) out in advance, I definitely learned that there is something to be said for just letting your life run its course. I didn’t realize that law school wasn’t right until everything was done for the applications except the personal statement, so I was left with a job search that I hadn’t planned on doing. I only ended up with a web-related job because the digital public affairs internship at a top PR firm (that in theory would have lead to a full-time job after 3 months, but I left after two) just didn’t feel right and going back to the web team I worked on in college (that had a new job opening) just made sense. The two career paths that on paper sounds amazing - law or top notch PR firm - weren’t right and I’m glad I finally realized I couldn’t force myself into careers that at one point I really did have a genuine interest but turned out to be different than I thought or not quite right. Now I have grad school and a career path that I’m excited about to look forward to in the coming years. I also know that the grad school program I will likely attend is flexible enough that I don’t have to stick to work for web design groups in the future if I need a change.
