How is graduate school different from college?

Answer 1

Graduate school is different from undergraduate in several ways. First is that when applying to graduate school, your admission can be contingent upon finding an academic advisor and/or funding to work with you during your program. You do not necessarily need to secure a specific advisor or funding in undergraduate unless it is a highly specialized program. Secondly, in terms of standardized testing, for graduate school, GRE scores are taken into consideration rather than SAT scores (although as with many undergraduate programs, graduate programs are starting to shy away from placing too much weight on standardized test scores). The GRE layout is very similar to the SAT, but tests college-level abilities vs. high school-level abilities.

Third, graduate-level coursework often delves further and builds upon undergraduate coursework, so that is why it would be difficult to go straight into a graduate program from high school. With regard to financial opportunities and funding graduate school, many students opt for fellowships, research assistantships or teaching assistantships to pay for their studies. These can range from 25% tuition payments to full tuition payments, and often include travel stipends and research grant opportunities. My advice is to jump on these early as they can fill up fast, so scope out a specific professor you want to teach or research with and let your your department head know this information well before the first semester starts (as well as that you would like a PAID position vs. a non-paid one). Fellowship opportunities can usually be found on your school's graduate admissions website.

Lastly, graduate students are tasked with writing and defending either a thesis (Master's) or dissertation (PhD). Some undergraduate programs may prepare students for this with senior or junior theses. The purpose of writing and defending is to learn how to properly and ethically execute a research study, and while this process can be tedious, it can be very rewarding at the end. Both the study and defense are done with the supervision of an academic advisor and an institutional review board (IRB). Each school has its own IRB and requires a proposal be submitted prior to executing the study.

I hope this answer helps to outline some of the exciting differences between graduate and undergraduate studies.