Senior Kirsten Block has written countless papers and survived seven finals weeks, but applying to graduate school has been a totally new challenge.
“It’s a living hell,” she said, laughing.
For senior Catherine Sims, being accepted in the Ph.D. program in political theory at the University of Notre Dame means a sigh of relief. She said the program offers her the opportunity to look at ancient, medieval, and modern political theory, as well as take advantage of other departments such as philosophy. They have also offered her a stipend.
“Notre Dame was my No. 1 choice,” Sims said. “I love the school. I love the campus.”
Sims also traveled to Texas for an interview with Baylor University and had a phone interview with the Catholic University of America.
Sims said she has been planning on applying to doctorate programs after college since the beginning, though she joked that last semester she considered creating a contingency plan.
“It’s kind of a relief to have some options that way,” she said.
Sims said she plans to teach at the undergraduate level after earning her Ph.D.
“Very few people actually get a Ph.D.,” said Joseph Garnjobst, associate professor of classical studies. “That’s really for the people who are the most dedicated to it — the people that can’t think of doing anything else but getting a Ph.D. and then teaching at the collegiate level.”
Other seniors more recently made the decision to apply for graduate programs.
“I’ve been thinking about it tentatively for a couple years now,” Block said. “It took a lot of contemplation and prayer this summer to decide it’s what I wanted to do.”
Block is looking into graduate programs in classics, theology, and early Christian studies.
“It takes a lot of thought about what you want to study. And it takes a lot of reading to get an idea of what you want to study,” she said. “When you contact people in grad schools, you want to have read something they’ve written.”
The process of looking for a graduate program is much different from that of an undergraduate program, Block said. Because graduate studies are much more about who you will study with, she said she has not gone on many campus visits.
“It’s not as much about the experience or the feel of the place as [is] undergrad,” she said.
While Block’s top choice would also be Notre Dame, she is also looking into programs at the University of Minnesota, the University of Kentucky, the Catholic University of America, Fordham University, and Boston College.
“You get so excited about every institution,” she said.
Senior Trevor Anderson said he’d had a vague idea that he would pursue further education, and now he is looking at theology and philosophy graduate programs. He settled on graduate school at the beginning of this school year.
“When you get a degree in philosophy and religion, you either teach or work at McDonald’s,” he said. “It’s all or nothing.”
Sims, Block, and Anderson all said their professors have played a major role throughout the process.
“My professors have been extremely helpful and supportive,” Sims said.
Block said the amount of help she has received has been overwhelming.
“I’ve had so many people help me, from how you go about looking for a school, to getting recommendations, to the way of presenting yourself in your personal statement,” she said.
Sims also said she feels that Hillsdale has several advantages that help students prepare for more schooling, such as the personal attention students receive from professors.
“The classes here have a kind of rigor that will absolutely prepare students for graduate level work,” she said.
Garnjobst said the classics department has meetings every semester for students interested in majoring in classics. In these meetings, they ask the students if they are interested in studying classics at the graduate level.
“We try to map out these things so that they can have a schedule — have an idea of what’s out there,” he said.
There are several ways classics students can explore their interest in graduate school, Garnjobst said. Students can read outside of class in the areas that interest them. The Latin program at Hillsdale Preparatory School also offers classroom experience.
This offers students lesson planning, classroom maintenance, and grading experience.
“If you do [like teaching], that’s great,” Garnjobst said. “If you don’t, then you’ve learned a valuable lesson without actually having to go get a job.”
By the summer of junior year, Garnjobst said the department expects students to have taken their GRE. Students interested in going on to graduate school also have opportunities to write and publish book reviews.
“There are a lot of opportunities for students to do things that graduate students do. They present papers. They write book reviews,” he said. “So we are trying to get them to operate at the graduate level while at the undergraduate level.”
Garnjobst said the department also takes students to Ann Arbor to do research for papers that they write for different classes.
“If they thrive in that environment, that’s a great sign for us because it’s easy to write letters of recommendation for people who are self-starters, self-motivated, thrive in that kind of environment, know how to do the research, and write great papers that get accepted to regional and national conventions,” he said. “They’re essentially graduate students.”
Garnjobst acknowledged that graduate school is not for everyone.
“It isn’t for people who think, I really enjoyed my Hillsdale experience,” he said. “Graduate school isn’t just so they can keep the Hillsdale experience alive.”
Anderson said it is professors like Garnjobst that have shown him, by example, that graduate school was something he wanted to pursue.
“I want to go to grad school because of professors like Jackson and Westblade and Cole who have intellectual rigor, a heartfelt love for the truth, and a love for their students,” Anderson said. “I wouldn’t be as excited about going to grad school if I wasn’t so taken with that vision of life that they have.”
