You want your McNair Scholars to be excited about applying to grad school without feeling overwhelmed and confused throughout the process.
This guided journey through the grad school application process will help your students master time management and reduce self-doubt as they build their application roadmap.
Background
Effective time management has been associated with stronger academic performance as well as lower levels of stress and anxiety in students. However, many undergraduate students find it difficult to balance their coursework, extra-curricular activities, and their interpersonal relationships. The lack of time mastery and productivity skills can translate to early struggles in graduate school. The philosophy of The Academic Society LLC is that mindset, time management, and productivity are the most essential tools for grad school success.
Learning Outcomes
The students will learn and implement a repeatable time management method for breaking down big goals into smaller, more manageable steps. The students will learn how to create realistic timelines and set up accountability measures to achieve their big goals.
Goal
The students will build out a digital grad school application roadmap in Trello to follow until they are accepted into a graduate program. Trello is a free, digital project management tool that helps to organize and keep track of big picture ideas as well as small details. Features of Trello include checklists, calendars, and progress reports.
Grad School Prep Program for McNair Scholars
The Grad School Prep Program for McNair Scholars is hosted by Dr. Toyin Alli from The Academic Society LLC and designed for McNair students to learn three essential tools to prepare for success in grad school: mindset, time management, and productivity. The program includes 8 prerecorded video lessons with actionable steps for the students to complete for each lesson. The program also includes 8 prerecorded question and answer sessions with current grad students who share their experiences and life lessons in grad school.
The Grad School Prep Program for McNair Scholars includes the following:
Weekly video lessons
Topics will include reflection, goal setting, big dream mapping, time management, productivity and follow-through, accountability, weekly planning, wellness, and grad school preparation. The videos will be hosted on an online learning platform to which each student will have access.
Lesson 1: Reflection
The students will answer reflective questions about their undergraduate experience so far to discover which courses and subjects they are most interested in learning more about. The goal of this lesson is to help the students narrow down what field they would like to study in grad school.
Lesson 2: Projections (Big Dream Mapping)
In this lesson, the students will learn a visualization technique to choose a possible career path and map out all of the necessary steps to go from undergraduate sophomore or junior to professional in the field of their choice. The students will then create a Trello board for their big dreams.
Lesson 3: Goal Setting (Building a Grad School List)
The students will research graduate programs in their field of interest and create three lists of schools they are interested in attending: dream schools, safety schools, and target schools. The students will then learn how to add these lists to their Trello board.
Lesson 4: Practical Time Management Tips (Making a List of Admission Requirements)
The students will learn the basic principles of time management and create a list of admission requirements for each school on their list. Then the students will break down the list of requirements into tasks and subtasks and create checklists in Trello.
Lesson 5: Creating a Plan
The students will learn to draw a visual roadmap or timeline for their big goal of applying to grad school. They will set a deadline to complete their big goal and set deadlines for smaller milestones and tasks.
Lesson 6: Productivity and Follow-Through (Schedule Deadlines in Trello)
The students will learn how to use their roadmap or timeline to set realistic goals and use the Calendar feature within Trello to schedule the start dates and deadlines they created in the previous week.
Lesson 7: Accountability
The students will learn that the bridge between setting goals and actually following-through with those goals is accountability. The students will choose an accountability partner and learn about co-working sessions.
Lesson 8: Grad School Prep
The students will complete the final touches on their grad school application roadmap in Trello and learn why students are underprepared for grad school and how to prepare themselves.
editable workbook with actionable tasks
Your students will also get a workbook with actionable tasks for each lesson. Your students will be able to edit the workbook on Google Docs or print a physical copy to write on.
prerecorded Q+A Sessions with Grad Students
Grad students from The Academic Society LLC’s community hosted grad school question and answer sessions for the live summer cohort of Grad School Prep for McNair Scholars. The conversations were completely directed by the McNair Scholars so the students were able address their misconceptions and uncertainty about grad school. The students in the Summer 2020 cohort really appreciated these sessions:
grad school survival course
Students will receive a coupon to enroll in The Academic Society LLC’s grad school survival course for free. This course is a digital course that teaches students all of the mindset, time management, and productivity skills necessary to succeed and excel in graduate school. The course is designed for students who have been recently accepted to a grad program. It gives students an idea of what to expect in grad school and then to rewatch the lessons as they reach new milestones in grad school.
Lesson Plans
You can customize the way that your students experience and consume the content inside of Grad School Prep for McNair Scholars. I’ve provided a couple options. Lesson Plan A is a one-semester approach and Lesson Plan B splits the content over two semesters.
Lesson Plan A
An 8-week grad school prep program to guide your students through time management skills and organizing their grad school application process. In this plan, your students will complete one lesson each week.
Monday - Assign a video lesson for students to watch and complete the workbook assignment.
Tuesday - Meet on Zoom (or in person) to discuss the major takeaways of the lesson
Wednesday - Assign a Q+A recording for the students to watch
Thursday - Meet on Zoom (or in person) to discuss the major lessons and takeaways of the Q+A Session
Friday - Students submit their workbook lesson to your program’s staff
Lesson Plan B
A 16-week, two-semester grad school prep program to guide your students through time management skills and organizing their grad school application process. In this plan, your students will complete one lesson every two weeks.
Monday - Assign a video lesson for students to watch and complete the workbook assignment.
Wednesday - Meet on Zoom (or in person) to discuss the major takeaways of the lesson
Friday - Students submit their workbook lesson to your program’s staff
Monday - Assign a Q+A recording for the students to watch
Wednesday - Meet on Zoom (or in person) to discuss the major lessons and takeaways of the Q+A Session
Total price for all of your current Scholars: $3500
Toyin Alli is a former McNair Scholar who received her PhD in Mathematics from the University of Alabama. She is now a full time Lecturer at the University of Georgia. Toyin started The Academic Society LLC to help graduate students succeed in grad school through time management, productivity, and self-care. She reaches thousands of grad students through her digital programs, online social platforms, YouTube channel, and website.