How to Organize your Grad School/Phd Applications (Trackers and Spreadsheets you need)
Real Question: Why can’t there be like a common app for grad school applications??
Unfortunately for those of us applying to grad school you will more than likely be dealing with multiple applications, multiple portals, and just documents on top of documents to keep track of. Keeping track of your application materials can feel overwhelming and who wants to take the chance of forgetting to send in something or missing a deadline because you weren’t keeping track? Not me.
I applied to ( 9!) Ph.D. programs last fall and these trackers that I created were my saving grace. I was able to save myself the stress and the headache up front by a little research on what application materials I would need and the general steps I need to follow to apply. I used that information to create trackers and spreadsheets that kept me organized along the grueling path of applying to grad school.
If you’re applying to grad school these trackers will change your life! I broke them up into pre-application checklist and post-application, because personally I found that one tracker wouldn’t be enough.
So if you’re looking to organize your grad applications, look no further. (Also they’re totally free to download!)
Note: In order to use the templates, click make a copy on your google sheets, and then you will be able to make changes.
PRE-APPLICATION TRACKERS
The main things you need to focus on before you apply to PhD or Masters programs is:
Conducting research on what schools you want to apply to
Professors you could work with
Tracking who you’ve talked to each school (absolutely crucial!)
Portal links and Passwords
Tracking application components like CVs resumes, personal statements, etc.
In part one of my “School list or SL” template the very first thing I do is have school research page where I can write down, which program I’m applying to for each school (if you're applying to multiple programs), professors I could work with and their research areas, three unique things I like about each school (examples interesting classes, location and how it fits with my research, potential organizations etc), their general funding structure (I was focusing on fully funded phd programs), required standardized tests, Statement of purpose requirements and program deadlines. This tracker is mainly geared towards Phd applications but could be applied to any research intensive grad program.
On the same documents there’s a list for tracking professors and students you’ve reached out. I also include the professors email, research focus, books and notes from our conversation.
This part of the tracker focuses on keeping track of individual documents and whether I have submitted them. It has all the common Items I would need to submit for each section such resumes, personal statements and writing samples.
Lastly, in the pre-application tracker, there is a section to put all the portal links so I can have them in one place and put usernames and passwords for easy reference.
POST APPLICATION TRACKER
After you’ve actually done the thing and applied to grad school then the first thing you want to do is sleep for ten days (I basically did this after I finished my apps lol). After your mini vacation, once January- May hits you’ll want to start tracking whatever decisions you have coming in.
Using this tracker I ranked the programs I ended up applying to in three groups. The rankings weren’t based on national rankings but instead how it matched my interest and how excited I was about it. There’s also a slot to tracking when you actually submit the application, if you got contacted for an interview and details of the funding offer ie fellowships, TAships, insurance etc. Once I actually got my decisions back I color coded it by using green to mean accepted, red for denied and grey for still waiting.
P.S If you're looking for more grad school organization tips, I highly recommend you check out my grad school Notion tour, where I include how I use Notion to stay organized for grad school and share my favorite free templates
So that’s it! These trackers got me through the application season and helped me to find and pick a program that I truly love. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.