PhD Admissions: School Selection and Application Strategy
1️⃣ Intake Call: Discuss research interests, long-term goals, and competitiveness 2️⃣ Research Fit Analysis: Identify potential advisors, evaluate alignment with research interests 3️⃣ School List Building: Create a balanced list (reach, target, safety) and ranking logic 4️⃣ Final Review: Review & finalize list, discuss communication plan for reaching out to possible advisors
What's included
- Personalized school list spreadsheet
- Advisor outreach strategy + sample email template
Meet your expert
Laurisa A.
You Belong in Graduate School. Let's Build the Application that Proves It.
As a student, I didn't know you could get a PhD (let alone get paid to do one) until my junior year of college. By that point I'd already stumbled my way into research by accident: I started in my department's stockroom as a work-study student, found an opening washing dishes in a lab, and ended up leading my own research project and publishing a first-author paper. Nobody handed me a roadmap. I just kept saying yes to the next open door. That experience is why I do this work. I'm a first-gen PhD graduate from MSU, and I have spent years inside graduate admissions by founding programs designed specifically to help students figure out how this process works and make a genuine case for themselves. I know what a strong application looks like from both sides, and more importantly, I know what it feels like to not know where to start. When we work together, it won't feel like a checklist. We'll figure things out together from where to apply, what to say, and how to tell your story in a way that's completely, authentically yours. We start with one question: why do you want to go to graduate school? And we build everything from there. Whether you're a first-generation student, a career-changer, or simply someone who wants to get this right, let's chat.
