The spring semester is exactly 9 days away (but who’s counting, right 🤷🏻♀️). To be honest, I’ve been cherishing the calm before the storm. In fact, I’ve been using this time to do my personal prep work leading up to the first set of classes. Planning for me has been the best way to fight against the stress I get when procrastinating, especially as the new semester approaches.
What’s nice about all the preparation is that it’s led to my first ever printable and it’s a checklist 😊.
Let me explain…I find that the best way for synthesizing everything I’ve been doing to get to this point and actually realize – guess what I’m a student again, and I’m enrolled in actual classes!! – is by gathering up all the steps I’ve taken into a really helpful checklist. Hopefully, this comes in handy to you too.
I also love, did I say love? No, am infatuated with checklists 😍. They help my analytical brain focus much better when I find myself overwhelmed by too many choices, to-do items, and pressing priorities.
The checklist covers all that I’ve done to get from applying to the program to gearing up for orientation. Here’s a list of the main categories:
- Apply to the program
- Get accepted to the program
- Register for courses
- Purchase or rent course materials
- Complete orientation
I know that everyone’s grad school application experience is different and these steps may not be in the order that you have encountered when applying and not every item on the checklist may be applicable to your grad school journey, but there’s some tips here worth taking a closer look. What happens when you don’t have your childhood immunization record? (Like I did!) You might need to set up an immunization (or immunity test) appointment. What courses should you enroll in? Maybe, it may help to first create a course plan by semester. And so on.
I hope in future posts to write a little bit more about some of my initial lessons learned when applying and some more helpful printables.
For now, check out the checklist and see how it compares to the steps you’ve taken (or are thinking of taking) back to grad school.
⬇️ Download the Getting into Grad School Checklist PDF.
To your salud & success.
AW
