Pregraduate Advising Office Pregraduate Advising Office Arts & Sciences and Trinity College Duek University

Getting Advice ASAP

The sooner you declare a major, the easier it will be for you to prepare for and obtain information about graduate school in that discipline. Your major department is an essential source of advice about graduate programs and your approach to postgraduate study. Choosing a major before the start of your sophomore year is ideal, but don’t be deterred if you make your choice a little later.

A good beginning for learning about graduate school in general is to attend an information meeting held by the pregraduate advising office or to visit the pregraduate advisor for a discussion.  The best advice about preparing for graduate study in a particular field is likely to come from faculty who work daily on topics closely related to the prospective graduate field of study and whose colleagues are positioned widely in institutions across the country. Your major department’s Ph.D. advisor is a source of advice and can recommend Duke faculty who are expert in specific subjects.

Students who are curious about the graduate education experience should read “Life Cycle of a Graduate Student” and talk to graduate student acquaintances and teaching assistants. Read a variety of materials that relate the experiences of graduate students, for example, the articles published by the Association for Support of Graduate Students.