Check out our Graduate School Application Guide provides comprehensive information and great resources to help students like you prepare for graduate school, select the best graduate program, complete the application, and fund your education. There is also a typical timeline for applying to graduate school.

Selecting the Best Graduate Program for You

The Guide contains a series of questions to help you determine which program is best for you. Directories and guidebooks can be helpful during the initial planning stage. Professional Journals can help you identify the type of research professors are conducting and where the professors are located. Student organizations can be helpful with networking and providing networking opportunities.

Funding

A graduate degree is an investment in your future. It is important to determine how the education will be financed. You should budget for: tuition, fees, housing and costs of living, books and academic materials, lab costs, and transportation. The Graduate School Application Guide discusses graduate assistantship positions, research assistant positions, fellowships, scholarships, traineeships, federal and state financial aid, and other resources to help students fund graduate school.

Test Preparation

Most universities require admission tests. Some admission tests include Dental Admissions Test (DAT), Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT), Professional Assessment for Beginning Teachers (Praxis), VCAT Veterinary College Admission Test (VCAT), and Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

International students may be required to take a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to demonstrate competency in writing and speaking English sufficient for graduate study.

There are several test practice centers that offer test-prep courses where you can learn test-taking techniques and practice taking admissions exams. These courses can help you improve your score and prepare for what to expect. 

We are here to help! We can critique  personal statements, help you with your graduate school application and preparation, and examine the best graduate school options for you. Please schedule an individual appointment. You can now schedule appointments online using UMBCworks.   

The Daily Iowan’s editorial board recently published a column arguing that the Iowa Senate should reject a $9 million tax break for a motor racing track in Newton, Iowa purchased by NASCAR. The authors contend that accepting tax breaks and appropriating public funds to build and maintain complexes for organizations such as NASCAR can harm the local economy.

A study by economics professor Dennis Coates was referenced in the article in which he argued sports welfare negatively impacts local residents because most money generated by sports stadiums ends up going to the owners.

“The professional sports environment in the 37 metropolitan areas in our sample had no measurable impact on the growth rate of real per capita income in those areas. The professional sports environment has a statistically significant impact on the level of real per income in our sample of metropolitan areas, and the overall impact is negative,” the Coates study noted.

You can read the full column published February 17 here.

Startup Quanttus is developing a device that monitors heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure from your wrist.

Plenty of fitness tracking gadgets and related apps can tell you how many steps you’ve taken today or roughly how many calories you’ve burned. Getting deeper insights, such as how your body is recovering from yesterday’s workout, is much trickier.

Typographicposters.com is a hidden gem of a site, that displays the artwork of a host of talented graphic designers in poster format.

The work on display is not chosen haphazardly but rather held to a very rigid set of design standards, according to site founder André Felipe. Each piece chosen is reviewed individually and must meet a certain level of design quality.

“Rather than promoting design work in a “what’s new” blog format, we form a collective platform of designers that conceives posters with a strong focus on typography and expressive graphical compositions, with the intent that it inspires others.”

The result is a stunning collection well-off the beaten path and with a host of new and interesting work for us to peruse.

The work of shutupandance, a one-person design studio based out of Berlin, caught my eye immediately; these posters juxtapose deconstruction with a meticulous attention to form, resulting in a captivating series.

Posters by shutupandance.

Posters by Boris Bonev.

By constrast, the simple and yet elegant creations of Chris Welsby, based in London, capture one’s attention with basic shapes used in unexpected ways. Varying in schemes from monochromatic to boldly pigmented, his work pushes boundaries from within very clearly defined lines.

 Posters by Chris Welsby.

Posters by Catalin Margarit. 

Also hailing from Berlin, Felix Wetzel has created a series of dynamic posters that balance bright primary colors with uniquely intertwined shapes or photographs.

Posters by Felix Wetzel.

Posters by Lucas Blat.

Amongst Swedish design studio Lundgren+Lundqvist‘s many engaging and creative works, possibly the most endearing poster of the lot. Set against a basic background, it simply reads: “This text was set in FS Emeric ExtraLight by Extra Lightweight Designer, Anna Iversén, who is 14 years old and spent a few days with Lundgren+Lundqvist during a field trip. Her favorite color is green.”

Posters by Lundgren+Lundqvist.

Posters by Paul Sin.

Posters by Nazario Graziano.

Posters by Lobke Van Aar.

What do you think of the work on typographicposters.com? Which designers are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

Featured image/thumbnail, detail from poster by Paul Sin.

Learn to Build a Flat Responsive Website from Scratch – only $37!

The Shriver Center's 096 Community Service & Learning spring 2014 registration officially closes by this Friday at 10 am!