If you are planning to apply for graduate school, you will have to start planning early and prepare for the application process. Here are some things that you might want to think about and plan ahead for.

Before the time you begin preparing and studying for the admissions tests (the GRE or GMAT, etc.) try to get involved with as many professional clubs, groups, and/or research as possible correlating to the area of study you are applying too. Your grad school application should show an area of focus and your commitment to that area, so start early by building up a resume that portrays that commitment.

Start early when collecting letters of recommendation. Remember that you are requesting, asking for, letters from these people, so you want to remain polite and considerate and give enough them enough lead time and also make sure they have enough information about the program you are applying to and your focuses and aspirations. Again, remember that the schools you are applying to are most interested in how well you might do within their academic program. Knowing this, the best people to get letters of recommendations from are past professors from your undergrad experience and faculty and professionals within your desired field or focus. This way they can write about how you might contribute to the academics, to the program and to the field with great knowledge.

Start outlining and drafting your statement of purpose early! It takes at least a month to write a good statement of purpose, but will probably take you longer after multiple edits and proof reads and showing it to a lot of people! So start getting your thoughts around it early. You can read this article about specific tips on writing your statement of purpose here: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art21718.asp

Consult the school for the specific application requirements early and double check! Better to be safe than sorry and it make take you a while to gather some of the required information. Additional application requirements can include application fees, undergraduate transcripts from everywhere you may have attended, any research papers you might have, future research proposals, and a resume.

Prepare in advance for a possible admissions interview. Treat this interview as a job interview which means you’ll want to have questions prepared in advanced, do your own research on the school and its program including the faculty. Find out more information about the faculty members you might be working with and find out about their own personal research and published papers, you’ll want to do this anyway when choosing a program, this way you have an idea of what research has been done before, where some of the program’s focuses are and where you might be an asset to contribute or add to the program.

Start your preparations early! This way you won’t be caught off guard by anything and you will have time to get together anything else you may need for your application. Good luck!