Most companies are ready to negotiate salaries.

Hopefully, you enter your Senior year with some idea of what you’ll be doing after you graduate. If you are not applying to grad schools, you’ll want to start applying everywhere you can for full time positions. Attend job fairs, search online, and talk to friends who already work in industry. Prefer searching via referrals and recruiters over simply filling out online applications. The process is just like applying for internships. It may not be fun, but you won’t have to do it again for a while after this. Try to apply for multiple or all the openings you are considering at once rather than spread out. If you manage to receive multiple offers at the same time you can use this to your advantage to negotiate higher salaries.

Companies are usually willing to negotiate, but you’ll be better off if you have competitive offers from multiple companies. Once you have multiple standing offers, speak with the representatives from the companies you are seriously considering. Mention that you have N other offers that you are considering and ask if the company can increase their offer. You can emphasize that you’d really like to work at their company and ask if they can offer you anything to make that choice easier. If you are comfortable doing so, you can request a specific salary. They may ask where your other offers are from or how much they are for, so be prepared to share. Taking advantage of multiple offers is a simple way to start off with the raise that would normally take several years to obtain.

Many recent graduates feel like their first job is a steppingstone to larger career goals, but it is expected that you will remain with a company for at least a couple years. This is important for building a solid resume, maintaining your professional reputation, and leaving doors open for returning to the company. Keep this in mind as you job search for post-graduation. The job you choose will probably determine where you live, what you’re paid, and how you work for at least the next two years.

There’s no great way to gauge the competitiveness of your application.

I did not take a job after graduating. I started my Senior year determined to go to grad school, and a little bit worried because I had no publications and little research experience. I had no idea whether I was a competitive applicant. I was fortunate to receive multiple good offers from PhD programs. Hopefully, my qualifications and experience applying to grad schools can serve as a point of comparison for you to judge how competitive your application is.

Whether you are applying for master’s or PhD programs the process will be nearly identical. The primary difference will be that you won’t be expected to show as much research experience in an application to a master’s program as you would to a PhD program. I applied only to PhD programs, but I know some students who chose master’s programs at top schools above PhD programs at lower ranked schools, so apply to both if you like. If you are applying to master’s programs, just know that indicating previous research experience is not as important, but you should still demonstrate research potential.

Apply to as many schools as you can and then a few more.

You should apply to as many programs as you can and are interested in. I ended up limiting myself to ten so that I would stay sane, but I probably could have done more in retrospect. Don’t let application fees slow you down. Most schools offer fee waivers. I got fee waivers from seven of the ten schools I applied to based on financial hardship or academic achievement. The process and requirements are different for each program, so it can get tedious. It is worth it though and can end up saving you hundreds of dollars.

Deciding where to apply was almost as difficult as deciding where to accept. I spent hours researching professor’s homepages and looking through their research. You’ll be doing a lot of this well. You want to apply places where multiple professors are doing work that is interesting to you. Look at recent research rather than just the summary on the professor’s homepage. I often talked to professors during school visits and found that they were working on projects that were unlike anything listed online. Also, factor in the professors who are writing you letters of recommendation and where they have connections. If you have a connection with a professor at any University, use it to your advantage to get admitted to their program.

You won’t have the best idea of whether you want to go to a school until after you are admitted and visit it. My ranking of the schools I was admitted to changed drastically after I visited each campus. This is why I really recommend applying everywhere you even might be interested in attending.

There are multiple places to demonstrate research potential in your application.

The actual applications are straightforward. Polish up your resume/CV and write a stellar personal statement describing your research experience and goals. I used the same documents for every application with minor adjustments. The final paragraph of my personal statement was the only one that was completely school specific. If you have published research, make sure to highlight it wherever you can. If not, be diligent in describing your non-published research experience. I had a paper under review when applications were due. The paper didn’t end up being accepted, but I talked in detail about that project and the research I put into it. I also described previous labs that I worked in and the summer research internship I was a part of.

Letters of recommendation are the next best place to show off your research experience. You don’t get to write these, but make sure you choose professors that have firsthand knowledge of your ability to do research. If you are struggling to think of a third letter writer, consider a professor that can vouch for your research potential based on course projects.

More and more computer science departments no longer require the GRE for admission to their programs, but for now enough do that you should take it. The only tips I have for preparing are to familiarize yourself with the GRE by taking practice tests. Being familiar with the organizational structure of the GRE will decrease stress on test day and speed up your test taking. They ask similar questions on every test, so know how to answer all the different types of questions you see on practice tests. This is especially relevant for the quantitative section which is the one that matters the most for you. I got the same quantitative score on both of my official practice tests and my final test, so the official GRE practice tests appear to be good indicators of how you’ll perform on the actual test.

I was told to apply to fellowships my Senior year as well. There are several fellowships that are available to undergraduates not yet admitted to a grad school. I only applied to NSF GRFP and Hertz fellowships but was not considered for either. There are other less prestigious fellowships available for more niche areas if you do your research. Many fellowships are not available until you are admitted to grad school. I don’t think that applying to these are essential, but they don’t hurt. You should have financial support and stipends as part of all your offers, but fellowships provide added flexibility. Sometimes they come with larger stipends than what your school will offer you. Also, you can mention your fellowship applications in your grad school apps. This may leave a good impression on reviewers, but if you had to choose between applying to more schools or fellowships, I recommend more schools.

You can have a competitive application without any publications.

Once you submit your applications around the end of Fall semester, you will have to wait until late January to early March to hear back from all the schools you applied to. This was an anxious time for me since I had no idea whether I was a competitive applicant. I had a 167 quantitative, 161 verbal, and 4.5 writing scores on the GRE and a 3.99 GPA which were average or above average for admitted students at the universities I applied to. I worked in three separate labs at my university on several projects one of which I led and had a paper under review at a top conference. I also had a summer research internship at USC the summer before my Senior year, but my lack of research publications worried me. In the end I was relieved to be admitted to four of the ten PhD programs I applied to. These included my undergraduate institution Brigham Young University along with USC, UT Austin, and UC Irvine. I hope this data comforts those of you who like me were unpublished when they applied to grad schools.

Don’t skip campus visits!

Before my campus visits, I thought I would choose to attend UT Austin, but after each visit to other schools I was less sure. I almost skipped my last visit to UC Irvine because I thought I could rule it out and just choose between UT Austin and USC, but I’m glad I went. Don’t skip campus visits! There’s nothing like seeing the campus, walking the department buildings, and speaking one on one with professors and students to help in your decision making. While you are there, talk to grad students as much as you can, and talk to as many professors as you can. Ask about their work and share ideas for what you’d like to work on. Get an idea for the kinds of things they are interested in and what the faculty-student relationships are like in the department. Take note of how comfortable you feel at the university and how excited you feel talking to each professor. You want to work on something you’re excited about.

Don’t discount the way you feel on campus talking to professors.

Now comes decision making time. Unlike applying for jobs, you will get to consider all your offers at once and they have a common deadline for your decision, but you can’t put it off for too long. You want to work with a professor who will let you work within your research interests. It’s better if the university you choose has multiple professors who’s research interests you. You may decide you change mentors, or your preferred mentor may not remain available. The ranking of the department represents the quality of your peers and to some extent your professors. Going to a top 5 or top 10 department can carry some weight, especially if you want to stay in academia. Five to six years is even longer than your undergrad and you will want to be as comfortable and happy as possible where you are living. Location matters more than you expect.

Keeping all this in mind, it’s the research you publish, far more than the school you came from, that determines your competitiveness when job seeking. I chose UC Irvine because the professors I spoke to were exciting and the location was unbeatable. It was the only school that offered guaranteed on campus graduate housing, it was 15 minutes from the beach, 20 minutes from Disneyland, and 1 hour from parents and in-laws. I was excited to have Allen NLP research happening on campus, and I genuinely enjoyed speaking to the professors there.

By the end of Senior year, you have a lot of decisions to make. Hopefully, this year won’t be too difficult academically, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be stressful. Don’t put off solidifying your post-graduation plans. Talk to professors, friends, and alumni about their experiences. I share mine in hopes that it can be of some help, but the more experiences you hear the better.