Students - Handbook

Graduate School Possibilities

Overview

Traditionally, graduate education in Spanish, on both the master's and the doctoral levels, has prepared students to take positions in academia. Since about 1945, however, graduate education in the United States has undergone expansion, professionalization, and diversification, and those changes have impacted virtually every traditional academic field. According to The Silent Success: Master's Education in the United States (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1993), since the early 1980s about 90% of those earning master's degrees were in professional areas. Today about half of all master's students are over the age of 30 and two-thirds are enrolled part-time. This suggests that graduate education has grown beyond the body of traditional programs to adapt to a changing clientele and to different expectations in education. In addition to master's programs which support doctoral education in the academic disciplines, there are master's programs of the "career-advancement" type, of the "apprenticeship program" type, and the "community-centered program" type.

An undergraduate concentration in Spanish prepares a student to consider a number of graduate educational directions, including law, international studies, economic development studies, international business, non-profit management, missiology, seminary, linguistics, teaching English as a second language (TESOL), social work, among others.

Information on doctoral programs in modern languages can be accessed through a pilot edition of the MLA Guide to Doctoral Programs in English and Other Modern Languages at http://www.mla.org/gdp_intro .

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Admissions Requirements

Entrance to graduate school is competitive. The following components influence a graduate school's decision in evaluating applicants:

Grades
The cumulative GPA is an important criterion in indicating an applicant's potential success as a graduate student. Although some graduate programs accept applicants with a GPA of 2.5, most require a minimum of 3.0. As a general rule, a GPA below 3.0 will hurt your chance for admission while one above 3.5 will improve your chances for admission to better schools.

Scores on Standardized Tests
The most frequently required test is the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). Graduate schools rely on tests such as this because they provide a common measuring stick for comparing applicants. The GRE General Test is administered by computer, yielding three scores in verbal, quantitative, and analytical reasoning. Students intending to enroll in graduate school in the fall of 2006 should take the GRE in the fall of 2005. Information about the test and registration can be obtained from the GRE web site (http://gre.org) or by calling the Prometric Testing Center in Grand Rapids (957-0368). A good way to prepare for this test is to consult a GRE preparation manual, available from the Broene Center.

Letters of Recommendation
Most graduate schools ask for three letters from persons who can speak to the quality of work you have done. Of the three references, no less than two should be from professors in your major field of study. Ask professors who know you well and who would be able to write a positive letter on your behalf. Students should provide the letter writers with the necessary forms, a stamped envelope, and adequate time to send off a letter.

Application Form
The actual form required will vary from graduate school to graduate school. Most applications will request some sort of essay; others, especially for programs in language or literature, will require an audio tape on which the student reads in the foreign language. Needless to say, the student should exercise care and be reflective in preparing the application. All communication from the student to the graduate school should be typed . Throughout the entire application process, the student is acting in a professional role; consequently, everything the student does to fulfill the application requirements should be done professionally.

Note : Deadlines are crucial in the application process and graduate schools adhere to them rigorously. Most application deadlines, especially those for which financial aid is a factor, are quite early. Thus, for September enrollment, expect deadlines in mid-January or the beginning of February.

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Timetable for Graduate Admissions

As is the case with most other decisions of importance, choosing a graduate school and making application take a great deal of time. The following sketches a recommended time frame for the entire search / application process:

Junior Year, Fall and Spring

  • Research areas of interest, institutions, and programs. For convenience all graduate catalogs are available in the Reference Department of the college library. More specific information (such as admissions manuals, ranking of schools, graduate admissions tests, scholarships) is available in the Career Resource Center on the second floor of the Hekman Library. Register and prepare for appropriate graduate admissions tests (GRE, LSAT, etc.)
  • Investigate national scholarship opportunities

Summer after Junior Year

  • Take required graduate admission tests
  • Write for application materials
  • Write your application essay
  • Check on application deadlines

Senior Year, Fall

  • Ask for letters of recommendation from appropriate instructors
  • Take graduate admissions tests, if you haven't already done so
  • Send in completed application

Senior Year, Spring

  • Register for Graduate and Professional School Financial Aid Service if required
  • Check with all institutions before the deadline to make sure your file is complete
  • Send a deposit to hold your institution of choice
  • Notify other institutions that accepted you of your decision so that they may admit students on their waiting list

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Financing Graduate School Education

Potential graduate students face a wide array of opportunities for funding full-time graduate education, including loans, scholarships, work-study, institutional financial aid, fellowships, and teaching assistantships. The latter two sources are the most prestigious, not to mention lucrative, and should be investigated by everyone hoping to pursue Spanish studies (language and/or literature). Generally speaking, fellowships require no responsibilities of the recipient, and most often remit full tuition and fees as well as provide a modest living stipend. Teaching assistantships also remit tuition and fees and provide a stipend; however, as their label suggests, they require that the recipient teach some introductory courses each year (usually two or three). Teaching assistants (or TAs) are not expected to be certified teachers on the secondary level, nor are they expected to have had any teaching experience. Most graduate departments that house teaching assistants provide seminars in instruction and have personnel available to supervise the assistants in their work. At most institutions, teaching assistantships are renewable for up to three or four years.

Teaching assistantships are more competitive in programs that offer study through the doctorate than in programs that offer study through the master's degree level. For students intending to pursue graduate work in Spanish or in foreign language education, there are many programs available that provide fellowships or assistantships.

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Application Strategies

To maximize the opportunities for financial aid or other financial support, students are encouraged to apply to at least six graduate schools: two programs of excellent reputation but to which admission seems unlikely; two programs to which the students feels some confidence in being admitted; and two programs to which the student considers admission to be certain.

Graduate Schools for Spanish

The following schools have been recommended by the Spanish Department faculty at Calvin (an asterisk means a special recommendation). However, this list is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather as a starting place for investigation. See also the MLA Guide to Doctoral Programs in English and Other Modern Languages at http://www.mla.org/gdp_intro .

Literature
*Berkeley
*Indiana University
Bowling Green ( Ohio )
*University of Kansas
*Columbia
*University of Texas at Austin
*Cornell
*University of Virginia
Michigan State University of Washington
New York University
*University of Wisconsin at Madison
*Princeton

Linguistics
Georgetown
University of Kansas
Michigan State
University of Pennsylvania
Middlebury
*University of Texas at Austin
Wycliffe
*University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)

FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary School)
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
University of Wisconsin at Madison

Latin American Studies
University of Arizona
University of New Mexico
University of Texas at Austin

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