Bookshelves

Joann reads all the literature she can on getting into graduate school so that she can pass the best of the advice on to you. Below you’ll find a list of the books currently on the market, ranked in what Joann feels to be the order of their helpfulness to grad school applicants. These books can be found in the career development center libraries of most colleges and universities, or you can buy them in bookstores or online. The Amazon Marketplace has lightly used copies of these books for just a few dollars. Reviews coming soon!

Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice. Donald Asher (Ten Speed Press, 2008). (This book has some good advice for graduate students in the humanities and sciences, although it also contains advice for law, business, and medical school applicants.)

Playing the Game: The Streetsmart Guide to Graduate School. Fredrick Frank and Karl Stein (iUniverse, Inc., 2004).

Get Into Graduate School: A Strategic Approach for Master's and Doctoral Candidates. Kaplan (Kaplan, 2006).

How to Write the Perfect Personal Statement: Write powerful essays for law, business, medical, or graduate school application. (Peterson's Perfect Personal Statements). Mark A. Stewart, 4th ed. (Peterson’s, 2009).

The Grad School Handbook. Richard Jerrard. (Perigee Trade, 1998).

Graduate School Companion (Graduate School Admissions Guides). Peter Diffley. (Princeton Review, 2007).

Real Life Guide to Graduate & Professional School: How to Choose, Apply for, and Finance Your Advanced Degree! Kerry Foster, et al. (Pipeline Press, 1998).

Real Guide to Grad School, 2001-2002: The Humanities. Edward Batchelder, et al. (Contentville Press, 2001).

Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting in With or Without Excellent Grades. Dave G. Mumby, Ph.D., and Bleu Quest. (Proto Press Publications, 2004).

Real Essays for College and Grad School (Real-Resumes Series). Anne McKinney. (Prep Publishing, 2000). (This book contains personal statements for law, business, and medical school, as well as graduate school. It is heavily weighted toward graduate degrees in education and social work. There are no example essays for scientists or engineers. The quality of the essays vary. Most are quite weak. )

Specifically for Psychology Grad Students:

Getting In: A Step-By-Step Plan for Gaining Admission to Graduate School in Psychology. American Psychological Association. (APA, 2007). (This is a great book filled with solid, useful, intelligent advice. We highly recommend it for psych grad students! Because it’s by psychologists, it even explains the psychology of rejection (with notes from psychological papers!).)

The Virtual Advisor: Successful Strategies for Getting into Graduate School in Counseling and Psychology. Greg J. Neimeyer. (Sage Publications, Inc., 2008). (This book is expensive. See if you can find it at a university career development center.)

The Complete Guide to Graduate School Admission: Psychology, Counseling, and Related Professions. Patricia Keith-Spiegel and Michael W. Wiederman, 2nd ed. (Psychology Press, 2000). ((This book is expensive. See if you can find it at a university career development center.)

General Grad School Guides:

Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. Robert L. Peters. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997).

Paying for Graduate School Without Going Broke (Graduate School Admissions Guides). Princeton Review, 2005 Edition. (Princeton Review, 2004).

The Ph.D. Process: A Student's Guide to Graduate School in the Sciences. Dale F. Bloom, Jonathan D. Karp, and Nicholas Cohen. (Oxford University Press, 1999). (Not an admissions guide.)

The Smart Way to Your Ph.D.: 200 Secrets From 100 Graduates. Dora Farkas Ph.D. (Your Ph.D. Consulting, 2008). (Not an admissions guide)

Guide to American Graduate Schools: Tenth Edition, Completely Revised. Harold R. Doughty (Penguin, 2009). (Not an admissions guide. This is a compendium of all institutions in the U.S. and the graduate degrees they offer. A book to borrow from the library if you need to reference it.)