Your P.I. suggested you apply for an NSF GRFPAn acronym for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduat... because the fundingBasically, money. Specifically, in a chemistry grad school c... will help you be competitive for admission to an R1Refers to a university with “highest research activity” ....
Does the sentence above make sense to you?
Maybe it does if you spent time in a research lab as an undergraduate. However, it’s possible some or all of the bold words aren’t familiar.
- Don’t panic: Just because you don’t know a word or acronym doesn’t mean you’re not prepared for graduate schoola school that offers advanced degrees. Important! Some schoo...!
- Zoom in: Academics often use jargon – technical language and acronyms that are highly specific to the unique context of a university.
Learn the jargon
In this post, we cover common grad school terms to help you learn or refresh your chemistry grad school jargon.
This list is by no means exhaustive. If you would like to suggest an addition, feel free to email us at gradchem@emory.edu!
Glossary
- academic year
- advisor/adviser
- assistantship
- broader impacts
- candidacy
- chair
- committee
- cumes
- curriculum
- defer
- DGS
- dissertation
- diversity
- DUS
- exams
- fellowship
- funding
- graduate school
- GRE
- GRFP
- handbook
- IELTS
- imposter syndrome
- industry
- lecturer
- liberal arts
- literature, the
- major GPA
- matriculate
- mentor
- orientation
- outreach
- PI
- private vs public
- probation
- PUI
- qualifying exams
- quarter system
- R1
- recruitment
- registrar
- research group
- residency
- rotations
- semester
- seminar
- standing
- stipend
- TA
- thesis
- TOEFL
- tuition waiver
- URM
- visitation