Navigating Grad School

By Frank Schuenemann

With submissions for graduate school applications quickly approaching, we at The Gleaner felt
that it was necessary to cover many of the bases to ensure that students already attending Rutgers
Camden were informed on exactly what the process is. Erick E. Watt-Udogu has held the title
assistant dean at Rutgers Camden, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for three years. His
enthusiasm for helping students succeed and his passion for his career made him the perfect
person to oversee admissions. He says the best route for undergraduates already attending
Rutgers Camden, is simply to speak to your graduate program director. If you are not sure who
this is the best thing to do would be to ask a faculty member you are comfortable with. The
graduate program director will be looking for letters of recommendation from an academic,
Statement of Purpose (so important). Some iterations of this you need your transcripts from your
undergraduate program and sometimes a resume or writing sample, depending on the program.
“It’s not a GPA thing,” said Udogu. “We look at students holistically, there are applicants of
various GPAs. The question is ‘can a person manage the rigor of graduate school and have the
interests in the program?’ That’s what we’re looking for more than a single number. Community
is big for us and providing people with an opportunity is big for us. It’s probably better to have a
3 than not but I do know students who do not have 3s.” Our product here is helping people
achieve their dreams or creating new knowledge and new creative concepts. That’s how the
world goes around.”

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