What are graduate programs looking for? How can I make myself stand out?
Graduate schools are looking for top grades (3.5 GPA or better); strong recommendations; a focused, clear, cohesive personal statement (I can help you write this); a solid writing sample that, if possible, applies to your research/academic interests; and good GRE scores. As long as you have most of these things in order, you don’t need to do anything else to make yourself stand out. If you don’t have super grades, that does not mean you can’t go to grad school; you’ll just need to apply to less competitive programs, and there are some good ones out there that are not necessarily in the top 10 rankings.
