Preparing for Graduate School

A Southern Virginia education is excellent preparation for graduate study in law, medicine, business, education and many other professions. It is also excellent preparation for graduate work in your major field if you excel in your major and carefully consult with faculty in your discipline. Southern Virginia graduates have been admitted for graduate or professional study at schools such as Baylor, Brigham Young, Cornell, Harvard, Illinois, Mary Baldwin, Pepperdine, Purdue, Radford, Richmond, Rutgers, Tufts, University of California at Davis, Wake Forest, and Washington and Lee.

A successful application to graduate or professional school requires considerable effort to refine each element. While different disciplines and programs have somewhat different application requirements, most graduate or professional school applications contain:
  • an official transcript from each undergraduate college or university you attended;
  • an official report of your scores on a standardized test (LSAT for law school, MCAT for medical school, DAT for dental school, GMAT for business school and GRE for graduate school in a discipline of the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences, etc.);
  • three letters of recommendation from faculty;
  • your résumé (also called a curriculum vitae);
  • a statement of purpose.

Many programs will also ask for a polished sample of your writing such as a senior thesis.

To start graduate school in the fall semester following graduation from Southern Virginia, you should begin preparing the elements of your application at least one year in advance in consultation with your faculty adviser. Most application deadlines are in January or February for the following fall but some are in December. You should kindly ask for your letters of recommendation at least one month prior to their due date, and you should spend several months preparing for the standardized test, which usually means devoting some of the summer after your junior year to test preparation.  Your statement of purpose and writing sample should be revised several times in response to comments from faculty.  For medicine and dentistry, you must begin your application and test preparation even earlier.

For specific guidance in preparing applications for professional programs, see the following faculty advisers:

For specific guidance in preparing applications for master's or doctoral programs in the arts and sciences, see: