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Before you submit you application to the Graduate Program in Biology at SFSU (or any other graduate program, anywhere), consider the following:
- Make contact (email. telephone, or visit) with potential major professors. This is one of the more important things for applicants to do. Because we accept only those students who have been invited to join a faculty member's graduate lab, it is important to identify one or more labs/advisors with whom you would like to study. Doing this bit of advanced reconnaisance will be helpful when you make your decisions on which faculty members with whom you'd most like to study. Don't be shy about contacting potential advisors — this is a major way in which we find our graduate students. We expect interested applicants to contact us. We look forward to it. When you make contact, here are some itmes that you might address:
- Does the faculty member intend to accept any new students this year?
- What kind of research projects are being done by the current grad students in the lab?
- Where have recent M.S. students from the lab gone?
- How are the current grad students in the lab supported?
- If you have a background that is unorthodox, or if you think you may be lacking a critical component in your background, this is a good time to bring it up with potential advisors and get their response.
- You can ask if the faculty member can put you in touch with her/his current grad students — then you can contact them and ask what it is like being a member of that lab.
- It is a good idea to visit the faculty member's web site to get a feeling for what the research foci are in the lab. Peruse the titles of the faculty member's recent publications; read the papers to see if you share research interests with her/him.
- Letters of Reference: We value letters of reference as indicators of excellent applicants. Your most influential letters will come from referees who are in the business of supervising graduate students themselves. We are interested in letters that can address how you compare with other graduate students that the referee has had. Employers and other referees who do not direct graduate students may be able to furnish laudatory letters of reference, but they will not be able to write with as much authority about your potential as a graduate student. Likewise, the most useful letters will be those from former professors in the fields in which you are planning to study.
- Submit everything on time. Plan ahead. Not only can late reception of materials compromise the likelihood of your application being reviewed, it sends a less than positive message about your potential as a graduate student. It is not a bad idea to check with the Biology Graduate Secretary (biograd@sfsu.edu) several weeks after you submit your application to ensure that we received everything.
- Remember that when you apply to the Biology Program at SFSU, you are in competition with other applicants. If you have not made contact with potential advisors, or read the advisors publications, or furnished all of the application materials by the deadline, you will be competing with applicants who have.
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