Effective Practices
Familiarize undergraduate students with graduate school in physics and related fields
- Educate students about currently popular areas of graduate study for physics students, including interdisciplinary areas such as applied physics, electrical engineering, nuclear engineering, materials science, biomedical sciences, medical physics, mathematics, data science, and computer science.
- Educate students about a variety of types of graduate degrees (e.g., PhD, MS—both terminal and as part of a PhD program, professional science master’s, and other types of professional degrees such as medical or law degrees) and the expectations of students in various types of degree programs (pertaining to, e.g., courses, theses, projects, and remote vs. in-person attendance). Encourage students (e.g., as a homework assignment) to research specific examples of programs in a variety of different fields that might interest them.
- Discuss the career pathways that various degrees enable. See 1.D below for details.
- Discuss the expected time for students to complete different degrees and the cost of and/or financial support available for each type of degree.
- Identify faculty members and alumni who will contribute their knowledge (and/or gather additional information) about a variety of areas and types of degree programs. Provide opportunities for faculty and alumni to discuss degree paths and fields of study with students in a variety of settings, including presentations, events, and informational interviews.
- Introduce students to current research in a variety of sub-fields and interdisciplinary areas by, e.g., including these topics in seminars (and encouraging students to attend); encouraging students to read articles in Physics Today, Physics, and other journals; and supporting students in attending conferences.
- Use GradSchoolShopper as a source of information about degree programs.
- If your department has a dual-degree program that includes a graduate degree, ensure that all students are aware of the program, the process for enrolling, and how the program’s benefits and drawbacks compare to those of other graduate degree options. See the section on Dual-Degree Programs for guidance on how to support and promote your dual-degree program.
- Ensure that your strategies for educating students about graduate school reach all students, including those who may not seek out information about graduate school or consider it without encouragement. Do not focus only on students who appear enthusiastic or high-achieving according to traditional criteria such as course grades. For example, integrate activities that educate students about graduate school into required advising and/or required classes throughout the physics major, particularly in the first year. Use opt-in activities such as graduate school information sessions only as supplements to activities in required advising and/or courses.
- Familiarize students with graduate school options early enough that they can plan appropriate course sequences and seek out research experiences.
- Recognize that, depending on their backgrounds and whether or not they have seen people like them going to graduate school, students may not be equally aware of or feel equally welcome in graduate school, and some may need individual encouragement to consider the option. Educate advisors, research mentors, , and students on the , in order to mitigate its effects on whether a student pursues graduate school.
- Systematically track which students in your program are learning about and pursuing graduate school, and look for and address sources of inequities. For example, if graduate school information sessions are optional, determine whether there are groups of students who are not attending, and find ways to make sessions more broadly appealing and accessible; or if faculty are talking only to some students about graduate school, educate faculty about and how to address it.
- Partner with relevant campus offices and programs, e.g., career services, that have established roles in graduate school exploration and preparation. For example, career services staff might lead information sessions (in courses or as stand-alone events) on graduate programs or work with to design course activities that enable students to explore graduate school options.
- Offer in-depth information sessions on graduate school more than once per year (e.g., in the fall and spring terms), to provide students with ample advising opportunities. Ensure that , advisors, and promotional materials strongly encourage first-year and second-year students to attend these sessions. Consider including options for virtual and asynchronous participation (e.g., by making videos available), to reach as many students as possible.
- Balance information sessions on graduate school with information sessions on careers, so that students can compare a wide range of options. See the section on Career Preparation for details.
- Enlist relevant student groups to promote information sessions, e.g., chapters, student chapters of national organizations for students of color, local clubs for women or students of color in physics, study groups, and other student social networks.
- Learn about and advertise resources from , , , and other sources, including GradSchoolShopper, webinars, and career resources. See Resources below for details. Advertise these resources in spaces frequented by students, e.g., on announcement boards or screens, in student study or social spaces, and in classrooms. Discuss these resources in classes and/or advising sessions.
- Collect and share information about national programs that support students from in preparing for and attending graduate school (e.g., the and the ) and about programs for recruiting these students to particular institutions (e.g., Caltech’s Future Ignited).
- See the section on Career Preparation for guidance on how to communicate to and educate students about a variety of career options.
- Learn about and advertise information provided by and on physics careers, employment, and salaries. Include careers that require graduate degrees and ones that do not. See Resources in the section on Career Preparation.
- Invite seminar speakers from a broad range of professions and encourage them to talk about how graduate school shaped their careers.
- Connect students with physics alumni from a broad range of professions and who attended a variety of graduate programs.
- Highlight that PhD students in STEM fields such as physics are usually fully supported with tuition and stipends. Inform students that financial support in master’s programs varies significantly and is less common than in doctoral programs. Provide upper and lower ranges of the amount of support students can expect based on type of graduate degree, type of institution, and local cost of living.
- Educate students on types of financial support for graduate students, including teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and fellowships. Encourage them to engage in activities that will prepare them for graduate assistantships, such as participating in a , tutoring, and/or conducting undergraduate research.
- Educate students about common milestones in graduate school such as the comprehensive or qualifying exam, thesis proposal, and thesis defense. Discuss how these milestones vary among programs and countries.
- Discuss graduate students’ workloads during various parts of their degrees (e.g., taking courses, working as a teaching assistant, and working as a research assistant), ability to work flexible hours, and .
- Discuss the importance of departmental community and how graduate school peers and advisors can be significant sources of academic and social support, and, in some cases, lifelong colleagues. Discuss how relationships with peers and faculty can greatly influence someone’s graduate school experience.
- Include preparing students for graduate school in your program’s mission statement. See the section on How to Create and Use Foundational Documents for details.
- Ensure that faculty and are positively recognized for their work in advising and educating students about graduate school in personnel reviews for, e.g., retention, tenure, promotion, and merit.
- If your department has a graduate program, consider which existing resources for preparing your graduate students could also be used to help prepare undergraduate students for graduate school, e.g., a graduate student orientation, an introduction to research course, and/or teaching assistant training.
Support students in the admissions process
- Provide all students with high-quality advising about applying to graduate school. See the section on Advising and Mentoring of Students for details on how to create a strong advising program.
- Develop a system for advisors to (1) collect information about graduate programs and about where students are applying, being accepted, and choosing to go to graduate school, and (2) share this information with other advisors and with the department as a whole in order to improve graduate school advising.
- Advise students early about which courses they will need to take and what grades they will need to earn in order to be accepted to and succeed in various graduate programs. See 3.B for details.
- Advise students early to cultivate relationships with potential recommendation writers (by, e.g., asking questions in class, going to office hours, and participating in activities for which they will have mentors) and to recognize that how well a recommender knows them is more important than the grade they earn in the recommender’s course.
- Advise students early on the importance of research experiences for helping them prepare for and get accepted to graduate school. For example, these experiences can help students decide if they like research (which is a major part of many graduate programs), strengthen their application package, and develop skills they will need in graduate school, such as collaborating with colleagues, designing a research project, writing a research proposal, presenting at a conference, and preparing a manuscript. See the section on Undergraduate Research for details.
- Provide opportunities for students to practice writing statements of purpose. In early courses, these statements can be targeted to applications to summer research programs.
- Advise students early on the benefits of undergraduate teaching experience for helping them prepare for and get accepted to graduate school. For example, these experiences can strengthen students’ application packages and help them develop content knowledge and skills related to communication, teamwork, and leadership, which are useful in graduate school. See the section on Undergraduate Instructional Assistants for details.
- Advise students on how to cultivate multiple strengths through an appropriate balance of courses, research, and other commitments.
- Advise students to consider graduate programs’ degrees, likely career options, research areas, potential advisors (see C below), geographic settings, expected workload, departmental culture and climate, and selectivity.
- Advise students to be flexible with respect to research areas or specific research groups, rather than to select a program on the basis of a single research area or advisor, in case they decide later that other areas are a better fit or offer better opportunities.
- Support students in accurately assessing their chances of being accepted to particular graduate programs. For example, help students realistically examine admissions criteria, both formal and informal; and educate students about how and/or overconfidence may impact their self evaluations.
- Support students in determining an appropriate number of schools to apply to. Encourage them to apply to enough programs to include a range of programs where they are more and less likely to be accepted, but not so many that applications become financially burdensome and/or redundant.
- Help students, especially those from , select graduate programs where they will be supported. For example, support students in finding faculty, alumni, and/or others who can advise them on the culture and climate of programs in fields they want to pursue.
- Advise students to consider graduate programs’ geographic settings, e.g., their proximity to students’ social support systems and/or whether they are in urban, rural, or suburban locations.
- Advise students on how to learn about the expected workload and time commitment involved in various programs and to consider how these factors will impact students’ commitments outside of school.
- Advise students on how to learn about the support each graduate program offers for students supporting families. See the section on Departmental Culture and Climate for an overview of broadly inclusive family-friendly policies.
- Advise students on the advantages and disadvantages of beginning graduate studies immediately after graduation versus after pursuing other activities, and on the advantages and disadvantages of applying to graduate school in their final undergraduate year versus later.
- Discuss the importance of choosing an advisor who is a good match, and the impact this choice may have on a student’s time to graduation, workload, work climate, networking opportunities, and other factors. Encourage students to consider that their choice of advisor might be more important than their choice of school and/or research topic.
- For programs that include a substantial research component, emphasize to students the importance of selecting a program where they will have multiple options for potential advisors whose interests, working styles, and temperaments align well with those of the student and who are likely to accept the student into their research group.
- Teach students how to learn about potential advisors, e.g., how to find their research group websites and how to determine if they have an active research program and are likely to be accepting new graduate students.
- Advise students on how to connect with potential advisors by, e.g., talking to them at conferences, seminars, and colloquia, and/or emailing them. Ensure that students understand the importance of making such connections. For example, some programs may require sponsorship by an advisor for admission, and even for programs that do not require this, potential advisors may serve as advocates to admissions committees on behalf of applicants who might not otherwise be considered.
- Encourage students to reach out directly to current graduate students in research groups they are interested in to learn about the graduate students’ experiences.
- Encourage students to explore possibilities for visiting research groups before applying. For example, if students are able to travel to the institution where a research group of interest is located, they may be able to attend a group meeting or seminar. Alternatively, students may be able to attend meetings or seminars remotely.
- Provide advising, information sessions, and/or workshops on the graduate school application process. Involve campus career services, if appropriate.
- Advise students on effective practices for obtaining letters of recommendation, e.g., selecting letter writers with appropriate qualifications and knowledge of students’ skills, providing letter writers with appropriate lead time and due dates, providing a draft statement of purpose and/or resume, informing letter writers about key points to include in letters, and thanking letter writers. See Resources below.
- Emphasize to faculty the importance of timely submission of informative letters of recommendation for students. Educate faculty on effective practices for writing letters, including tailoring each letter to the student and the program, avoiding bias in letters of recommendation, and declining to write a letter rather than writing a lukewarm or negative letter.
- Advise students on procedures for getting waivers for graduate school application fees.
- Consider requiring students to document their skills and experiences through, e.g., resumes, CVs, LinkedIn profiles, digital or book-form portfolios, or digital transcripts.
- Support students in writing statements of purpose. Discuss elements that make such statements effective, such as concrete examples of a student’s research, teaching, and/or work experience; concrete discussion of skills a student has acquired; demonstration of academic preparation, motivation, and a breadth of interests; an explanation tailored to each program about why that program is a particularly good fit for a student’s goals and interests; and an explanation of any potential weakness in an application, e.g., low grades in a particular semester.
- Draw on resources from professional societies to support students in selecting types of graduate programs and navigating the admission process, and to learn about and share with students initiatives that improve equity and inclusion in graduate admissions. See Resources below.
- Advise students about how programs’ expectations vary with respect to the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). For example, some programs require GREs, some do not consider them, some make them optional, and some recommend but do not require them. Advise students on how to interpret these expectations, how to decide whether to take the GREs, and how to interpret their results.
- Support students in preparing for and taking the general and subject GREs, if needed. Advise students on how much time they will need to prepare for these exams, help them form study groups, publicize GRE dates and registration deadlines, and publicize the GRE Fee Reduction Program. Consider providing GRE preparation sessions. See Resources below.
- Ensure that advisors keep track of and proactively reach out to students to learn the outcomes of their applications, so that students do not miss out on opportunities for mentoring and advising while making their decisions.
- Advise students on comparing programs’ strengths, evaluating the personal fit of each program, comparing support such as fellowships offered by different programs, and comparing graduate program offers to employment offers and other opportunities. Encourage students to revisit the criteria above for selecting which and how many programs to apply to.
- Educate students on how to take advantage of common processes that schools use to recruit accepted students, such as all-expenses-paid in-person prospective student visits or virtual open houses.
- Encourage students to schedule discussions with specific faculty members and graduate students at each program they are considering, and to prepare specific questions in advance about, e.g., potential advisors’ research papers (which students read in preparation for the meeting), culture, climate, workload, time to degree, the process for matching students with advisors, and openings in specific research groups. Encourage students to revisit the guidance above for connecting with potential advisors and research groups.
- Educate students on how to look for warning signs of problems in a program, e.g., a large number of students who drop out, spend a longer time in the program than they intended, and/or have negative experiences in the program.
- Provide guidance to students on how to professionally and respectfully decline offers in a way that leaves the door open in case the student needs to accept an offer later because unexpected circumstances make it difficult to attend the school where they initially accepted an offer.
Help students develop skills for success in graduate school
- Develop a shared list of courses that graduate programs commonly expect, taking into account variations in expectations between disciplines, subfields, or types of graduate programs. Ensure that and advisors are familiar with the list and educate students about it.
- While sharing the list of expected courses with students, make them aware that missing a few courses does not preclude attending graduate school, and that they can often make up needed coursework in graduate school or before enrolling.
- If your program does not require all the courses commonly expected by graduate programs, ensure that students understand this and learn early on about curricular pathways that will enable them to complete all of these courses in a timely manner. Consider creating a degree track for students interested in pursuing graduate school. See the section on Degree Tracks for details.
- Support students in planning undergraduate course sequences that will enable them to complete the expected courses and gain the needed knowledge and skills for the graduate programs they intend to apply to.
- Establish for skills needed for graduate school, and a that identifies the courses and activities that support students in achieving these outcomes.
- Provide opportunities for students to develop technical skills such as data analysis and coding. See the section on Computational Skills for details.
- Provide opportunities for students to develop communication skills such as writing and giving presentations in a range of formats for a variety of audiences. See the section on Communication Skills for details.
- Provide opportunities for students to develop collaboration skills including teamwork and project management. See the section on Implementing Research-Based Instructional Practices for guidance on how to facilitate students working together effectively in small groups.
- Support students in developing study skills, time management skills, and organization skills, perhaps in partnership with campus offices (e.g., your student success center) that support these skills.
- Advise students that graduate school can be challenging and will demand strong executive function skills and socioemotional skills. Support them in developing these skills during their undergraduate years and in learning to seek out support, friends, family, and professional resources to help them succeed. Acknowledge that students are likely to experience stress during graduate school, that some stress is normal, and that they should promptly seek help if stress becomes overwhelming.
- Provide opportunities for undergraduates to assist in classes, e.g., through a model such as or a . See the section on Undergraduate Instructional Assistants for details.
Support all your students in developing a sense of belonging and identity as potential graduate students
- See the section on Departmental Culture and Climate for guidance on how to create, nurture, and expect a culture in which everyone is welcome, included, and supported.
- See the section on Retention of Undergraduate Physics Majors for guidance on how to provide opportunities for your students to connect with the broader physics community.
- Ensure that your program explicitly addresses the needs of students from . Recognize that strategies (i.e., treating everyone the same regardless of race or ethnicity) are insufficient to ensure that your department supports and encourages these students to pursue graduate education. See the section on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for details.
- Provide resources (including information, contacts, and funding) for students to connect with supportive communities at the department level (e.g., chapters, student chapters of national organizations for students of color, local clubs for women or students of color in physics, study groups, and other student social networks), institutional level (e.g., clubs, identity-based organizations, and sororities and fraternities), and national level (e.g., , , , , , and ).
- Provide opportunities for undergraduate students to interact with current and past graduate students inside or outside your department. These could include panel discussions, joint journal clubs, mentoring programs, and/or alumni visits to your department.
- Encourage faculty in your program to introduce students they have done research with or who are interested in their research field to external research colleagues and collaborators.
- Develop an alumni network by establishing effective mechanisms to collect, store, and share information about your physics graduates. Collect persistent contact information (email addresses, phone numbers, and professional social media accounts) and career placement information for all graduates before they leave campus, and follow up to track them through their careers.
- If your department has a graduate program, offer a mentoring program to connect undergraduates interested in graduate studies with advanced graduate students. See the section on Advising and Mentoring of Undergraduate Students for guidance on how to establish a formal structure that supports mentoring within your department or program. Choose graduate student participants who are making good progress and are likely to be supportive and helpful mentors. Recognize that mentoring of students from often falls disproportionately to faculty and graduate students from marginalized groups, and take steps to relieve and/or reward this additional labor.
- Provide opportunities for students to present their research at conferences, including those that highlight the contributions of .