Written by Mona Heidary

Thumbnail Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash

Finishing your undergraduate degree is usually followed by making many decisions about different aspects of life. While some people decide to stop studying and commence their professional life by looking for an appropriate career, others may pursue their education and complete a master’s degree. Either way, a detailed plan can help you make your goals feasible. This article enables you to develop ideas about planning your educational future. So, if you are looking into continuing your education and completing a master's degree, you might find this article interesting and helpful.

Deciding on a program to study

By the time one decides to pursue a master’s degree, you should have a relatively clear understanding of what interests you, what your long-term plans and goals are , and what subjects you need to focus on to achieve those goals. These elements play a crucial role in making decisions about what to study. When you make up your mind about the main field you want to master and start looking for programs, you’ll find yourself in the middle of a wide variety of options which might lead to confusion. One way to address this problem is to list as many details as possible about the desired programs. The following details might help you make better decisions:

1. Length of the program

The length of master's programs can vary from one to two years. To narrow down your choices and find what suits your situation best, you can think of how much time you are willing to spend studying and how much flexibility you can have about this duration.

2. Budget

The next element that can be essential in your decision-making process is the budget you want to allocate. Consider questions like how much money can I invest in this program, are funding and scholarships available, and can I take out student loans to help me.

3. Research-based or course-based

Another feature you need to consider before deciding which program to study is the extent to which you are interested in research. While some master's programs are research-based, others are course-based. The former, as the name suggests, entails a lot of research, and the whole program is designed in a way in which you will have to do thorough research and present its results as your final work. This form of program may require more than two years of study. On the other hand, course-based programs do not necessarily finish with an extensive research project. Although you may have to do a lot of research-based assignments, there is not one thorough research to which you are committed through the two years of your study.

Time to find the right program!

Where should you look for it?

Once you have decided about the features above, it is time to look for the right program that addresses your needs to a reasonable extent. Many different websites can help you find what you want, one of which is Master’s Portal. You can also find programs on EduCanada which provides you with information about Canadian schools. With the help of such websites, you can find programs in many countries. In just a few steps, you will access information about available programs, where they are, and the amount of time and money they need.

After listing the potential programs you might want to study, you need to go through more details by looking the program up on the university's website.

Learn more about the courses

Why do I need to find the program on the university’s website if I already know the time, the tuition, and the place?

The additional information that the university provides you with is invaluable. The prerequisites are the first thing one needs to look into when checking the program on the university's website. This is highly significant, especially if you are changing your field of study. On the university website, you can also discover what courses are offered and what materials will be covered. Moreover, you can learn more about the course instructors, including their research areas. Information as such can help you with the next step.

Get in touch with professors

If you are interested in a specific course or subject, you can find the professor working on the latter. Then, you can contact them to see if there are available projects to which you can contribute. In this step, if you have a good CV or can show commitment and interest, you might be able to convince the professor to allocate necessary funds to your research and education so that you can work with them and pay for your tuition. To this aim, the universities mostly want you to apply for the program first. Therefore, preparing your documents, applying for the program, and getting admission is crucial. Some of the common requirements are mentioned in the following paragraph.

Requirements

To apply for most programs, you need to prepare your academic transcripts, including official translations if their language differs from the university for which you are applying. Regarding educational documents, some universities may want your previous university certificates to be assessed against their own standards. Moreover, you need to see if the university has some language requirements. You might need to take some standardized language tests to prove that you meet the program's language requirements. Review the required and accepted language tests at the listed universities. Another factor to consider in this step is your scores and marks in the previous degree since many universities only accept students with averages higher than a particular mark.

Planning to enter grad school entails putting in a lot of time and energy. You need to consider several factors and plan ahead for them so that by the time you apply for universities, you have a thorough understanding of what you want to do, what steps you need to take, and what items you need to prepare.

Finding & Applying to Graduate School Programs