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The following is the typical time table you should follow to enter graduate school in the Fall quarter following graduation. However, take caution, as every program has its own requirements and deadlines. Please make sure you are in communication with admissions in order to meet specific deadlines and fulfill the necessary requirements.

Junior Year (Undergraduate)

Fall quarter:
- Do some serious thinking about what careers you are interested in.
- Talk to biology faculty about careers and graduate schools.
- Get in contact with and talk to individuals in the careers you are interested in.
- Take biology elective courses in areas of potential interest to you.
- Start thinking about who you would like to write your letters of recommendation. If you don’t have four people picked out, start scouting out possibilities and try to set up relationships. You want the writers to know who you are.

Winter quarter:
- Continue thinking about and discussing career choices. 
- Talk with biology faculty about the possibility of doing independent research during summer between junior and senior years.
- Ask advisor or faculty member if there might be any classes that might be missing for graduate school admission.

Spring quarter:
- Finalize plans on doing independent research project.
- Continue to communicate with the 4 professors who will write you positive letters of recommendation.
- Consider taking the General Test of the GRE, although this early date (April) is optional. If you decide to take it now, register before mid-March.
- Continue to think very hard about career options. Go on informational interviews with individuals in the careers you are interested in.

Summer between Junior and Senior Years:
- Continue to think very hard about career options (notice trend).
- Do an independent research project.
- Register for the October GRE test date.
- Begin studying for the Biology Subject Test of the GRE, if you need to take it in November.
- Obtain graduate catalogs and department brochures from schools that emerge as possible choices.

Senior Year

Entire senior year:
Take remaining required and elective biology courses.

Fall quarter:
October: Register for the December GRE, if you decided to take the two GRE portions on separate dates.
November: Take the GRE General Test, and if required, the appropriate subject Test.
December:
- take the GRE if registered.
- If still undecided, use part of the Holiday break to visit schools.
Mid-December: Receive GRE scores from November test (if paper test taken, as with Subject Tests).
November or December (depending on deadlines):
- Make final decision on which schools to apply to, and begin filling out application forms and financial aid forms.
- give chosen faculty members forms and envelopes for letters of recommendations.
- request the mailing of all undergraduate transcripts to the graduate schools. Request this from the registrar’s office of each school you have attended, even if for only one course.
- Get your applications into the mail in order to beat the deadline by at least a week. Send by overnight mail if necessary.
- Two weeks after applications are sent: call or write the graduate school department office, ask whether all application materials have arrived safely. If not, chase down whatever is still missing.
Mid-January: receive GRE scores from December test (if paper test taken, as with Subject Tests).
March, April: receive acceptances from multitudes of top-ranked graduate schools.
April 15: due date (for many schools) for you to send responses to schools that have accepted you.
May:
- Identify whether you can take a summer rotation in a lab
- If you want to room with a fellow graduate student, call program coordinator to see if there are students looking for a roommate.

Note: If you unfortunately do not get accepted to your schools of choice, you can either try the following year, or try a smaller, less known program. Some graduate schools continue to accept students well into the summer, but most of these do not carry offers of financial aid.

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