Meeting the mark in grad school

With more people seeking master’s degrees than ever, students may wonder what it takes to succeed in graduate school.

Setting numbers aside, work experience and leadership skills often make the strongest candidates for graduate education, Boston University officials said.

Patti Cudney, assistant dean of Graduate Admissions in the School of Management, said graduate school requires people who take initiative and work well in teams.

“First and foremost, [we value] someone that is hard working and ready to devote the time,” she said. “You’re getting an awful lot of learning in a condensed time.”

Work experience can serve as a key factor in getting accepted into graduate school, Cudney said.

“We’re looking for people that come in with work experience after college,” she said. “It’s something that would make you more attractive to future employers.”

The School of Public Health, which has seven different concentrations in its program, accepted students whose GER scores rank in the 70th percentile and GPAs exceed 3.0, Admissions Assistant Anne Thorsen said. About 40 percent of students apply directly while in undergraduate school.

“Having background in management or policy would definitely set you above other students,” Thorsen said. “Having a background would definitely be preferred [with] students who have put in the time to research where they want to go and what they want to do.”

However, not all students have this background before pursuing a master’s degree. Kate Worthey, a first-year graduate student in the College of Communication, said she enrolled in BU directly after completing her undergraduate education.

“I decided I wanted to go to grad school at the end of my sophomore year of undergrad,” Worthey said. “I knew that I needed to be preparing myself. Not everybody does that.”

However, getting accepted to graduate school is just a step in the process. A number of students said they find obtaining a master’s degree to be a daunting task, especially with an increasing number of qualified students in competitive schools.

“Be ready to handle a large workload, “ said Sarah Hosman, a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student. “It’s a lot more stressful than people realize.”

COM graduate student Staci Morrison said the graduate school experience tends to call into question students’ priorities.

“You have to re-prioritize your life depending on the demands of grad school,” Morrison said.

Students may hold some misconceptions about the purpose of graduate school, including the idea that a master’s degree is a way to defer one’s entrance into the working world.

Worthy said, however, students should not take that idea seriously.

“You’re working all the time [in grad school],” she said. “You should be ready to buckle down and do hard work.”

Despite its challenges, graduate education has brought some students together and enabled them to explore higher education.

“It instills a strong bond between you and the people in your class,” Worthey said. “People who went to grad school have a fundamental understanding of people who are in grad school. It gives a sense of unity.”