If the rest of you college seniors are anything like me, then you are starting to have internal anxiety about the prospect of applying for grad schools. Okay, so not ALL of us are applying to grad school, but for those of us who are we are attempting to navigate the insanity that is the application process and making sure we have a full resume. In order to try and shake off the last of the nerves that grad school has given me, I decided I would write about the impending process I am putting myself through.

1. You need to decide if grad school is for you.

Some of us may not need grad school to start our careers and others may just want that year off to prepare our resume a little more before we apply. Either way, you need to make this decision beforehand, it can save you some stress or add to it.

2. Make up a list of grad schools you want to apply to.

Please don’t be the person who has their sight set on one particular grad school and only apply to that one. There are no certainties that you will get in, even if you do meet all of the requirements. Most grad schools have limited spots and don’t accept as many applicants as the undergraduate programs do; while applying to more than one doesn’t guarantee you will be accepted into any of them, it does, however, increase your chances a little. The Cacrep website has a list of accredited schools you can apply to if you are uncertain what schools suit your needs.

3. Look at what the schools require for their applications.

Not all schools require the same things for their applications; some could require more than others and some could require less.

4. Start thinking about recommendations.

Letters of recommendation are almost a guarantee necessity for your application. From my own personal research, most seem to ask for at least three. Good people to ask are your professors, bosses, volunteer/internship/research advisors.

5. Sign up for the GRE.

No testing is not over yet, a lot of grad schools require that you take the GRE general test (few will ask for the subject test). So it would be a good idea to sign up for it now and get your score in before it’s time to apply to schools in January.

6. Work on your GPA.

I’ll be the first to admit my GPA isn’t where I want it to be for my applications. I may meet the minimum requirements for graduation and the minimum for what grad schools ask for, but we all want our applications to have a little more of an edge to them. The good news is we still have time to boost our GPAs before applications are due. So sorry, but it’s time to officially trade-in our nights on the town for nights in the library if you haven’t already.

7. Don’t panic if you don’t get accepted into any grad schools.

Like I said earlier, it’s very competitive and spots are limited. What you can do it take time to work and save money, boost your resume, and try again in the next round of applications. Not getting in the first time is not the end of the world or your future career plans.

Hopefully this will help ease any anxiety my fellow seniors have about the prospect of applying for grad school; I know writing about it eased my own nerves! But the most important thing when going through this process is to take a deep breath and stay positive. We will get there eventually.