How do parents get their children into grad school?

BrownParent
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:12:02 +0000

I think parent’s can help by having a high regard for academics, and to put the possibilities on the table early in the person’s life. But beyond that, they can only offer advice. And the advice will only be relevant if they are aware of the realities of the process. My mother is a good editor, so she can help with small details, but no one can write your app or your sop for you. A good editor can steer you to be your best, but they can not come up with the source material.

The student’s best advisor and reality check is the professor they are doing research with. They will usually tell you if your school list is a good one or not, and most will look at your SOP too.

MBA is really different thing and different people aspire to one, than aspire to academic grad school. there is a separate forum here for professional schools.

My daughter decided in high school that she wanted to do something important. And that important thing was going to be to further human knowledge in some scientific area. she was inspired by Steven Hawking’s Universe in a Nutshell and some good teachers in school. So she was already thinking of grad school as a probable.

I only know now to reccommend to someone to do research early. She initiated it in her freshman year (and that isn’t even on her CV, she has too many other things to list.) She spent every summer of college doing research and extra classes. She let college exploration lead to her major and her more specific interests. This was influenced by professors.

So parents can help by assisting the student to get into the best college they can, allowing for financials. Ability to get into a school where you have access to Professors and access to undergraduate research is one factor that can be important in grad school acceptance. You can look at acceptance rates to grad schools as part of evaluating colleges.

My daughter was (perversely) lucky to get a great package to a great undergrad school and has had to manage her financial aid to do everything. This includes renting apartments, semester abroad with travel, grad school application fees. She is applying to grad programs that are funded, yet I imagine she will be living on a pretty skimpy budget for many years, and there is an opportunity cost there.

I am caught up in the tension of the season here and the uncertainty of where she will be next fall, and even summer. She barely tolerates this, but she is a good sport.

I have been able to use our experience to help advise some family members, and write a few posts on CC too. So far dd has been accepted to one top school for the PhD program, still waiting to see how this plays out.

So in all, i agree with the OP that it is quite fantastical to imagine that parents can get their children into grad school. or perhaps there are schools that just admit full freight payers?