Pathway to Penn: Using Third-Party Websites to Aid in Your Search

In the last part of my "Pathway to Penn" series I talked about the steps to finding the right graduate program for you. Talking with your professors is a good way to get some information about programs, as is looking at some of the researchers you cite from in your lab's work. It is also essential to look at individual program websites to get a feel for what each respective program offers. You can often access statistics of an average accepted student, which can help you decide whether or not you should pursue an application. However, just like universities are active in recruiting the best faculty, they are also interested in recruiting the best graduate students. Therefore, you must acknowledge that programs will highlight their strengths and hide their weaknesses. This is why using reputable third-party websites can be very helpful in your graduate school search.

Two third-party websites that I have used in my search are College Confidential and The Grad Cafe.

Both websites have an immense amount of useful information, but they differ in focus somewhat. College Confidential caters to all students, not just prospective graduate/professional students. They have their own articles about how to get into an Ivy League school and how to best study for certain AP exams. As a side note, the website, while indeed having a wealth of valuable information, is pretty much targeted for and frequented by students who put the Ivy League on a pedestal, so if you browse a bit you should expect to see posts from students who claim their life is over because they didn't get into an Ivy. Such stories are fairly common and definitely overkill, but if you can get beyond this atmosphere on the site, I can promise that it will be worth visiting.

The discussion forums are the hotbed of
information for all of your questions.

If you head over to College Confidential, you should check out the discussion forums. This is where prospective and current students can ask and answer questions of all kinds. All professional programs are covered, including graduate, medical, law, business, and even veterinarian school. All you have to do to post you question is register an account. As you can see from the below image, the discussion forums are very active, so you should have no trouble getting an answer to your post.

Another third-party website I used for my graduate school search was The Grad Cafe. The Grad Cafe differs from College Confidential in that it specifically caters to graduate students. There are also discussion forums at The Grad Cafe, though they are not as active as the ones at College Confidential. The main reason I visited The Grad Cafe was their "Results Search" feature. The Grad Cafe allows users to submit interview/acceptance/waitlist/rejection decisions for schools, along with the method for notification and date received. This can be useful later on in the application process to better predict when you will receive word from the institutions you applied to. Like College Confidential's "What are my chances?" posts, this is not an exact science, but the "Results Search" section is generally a good measure of when you can expect a decision letter back.

The Grad Cafe caters specifically to prospective and current graduate students,
offering forums and a useful "Results Search" feature.

Overall, the benefit for using third-party websites in your graduate school search is to see an unfiltered perspective of your program from fellow applicants as well as current students. You can ask about some of the weaknesses of a program and receive an answer that would not be included in that program's website. Additionally, both sites I highlighted offer advice to help you prepare for your standardized entrance exams. While it's not guaranteed that you will be aided by using third-party websites, you should at least give these two a try.