ACU’s Undergraduate Research Festival marks a vital move toward preparing upperclassmen for possible graduate school endeavors in Abilene and beyond. But with little of ACU student research making a splash on the national academic scene, this step marks merely the first step in a long trek toward distinction.
Some applications for graduate programs request notations of research only if presented at national conventions or if published in journals. And certain fields recommend professional experience before applying to graduate school.
Regardless of the field or program, simply submitting an application rarely is enough.
Students interested in graduate school should be prepping their resumes from their freshman year. Although ACU represents an outstanding teaching institution, finding research in which to participate that actually registers on the national scale can be a challenge.
Additionally, those interested in graduate school should remember the value of networking: An application follow-up email expressing shared interest in a professor’s past and ongoing research projects can go a long way toward setting aside one applicant from 200 others at larger schools.
And all of this information represents the tip of the academic iceberg of what should be readily available and communicated to ACU students.
Whether the Career Center already offers such informative resources, students largely seem unaware, and ignorance leads to haphazard applications that may or may not be noticed, much less marked for the scholarship, fellowship or assistantship required by many students for attendance.
Just as resources like the Mobile Learning Initiative, the AT&T Learning Studio and the Royce and Pam Money Recreation and Wellness Center all contribute to the quality of the ACU experience and, therefore, add to the integrity of ACU graduates’ degrees, increased enrollment in graduate school by ACU grads also indirectly would benefit the university and its attendees.
Students meet with advisers, take internship classes and, largely, are shepherded through their undergraduate experience. But when it comes to graduate school applications, a lack of information and advising throws students to the wolves.
An increase in students continuing to graduate programs would reflect well on ACU and its graduates, so the university would only be helping itself by helping its students on this front.
Whether through more deliberate advising, classes focused as much on continuing education as internships or forums and informational sessions, departments and administration should take cues from the step taken by the ACU Undergraduate Research Festival and begin more pointedly preparing students for the graduate school application process.
