At this time in the semester many students find that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. It's a question of time management: You have a limited amount of time and must determine how to allocate it to get the most bang for your buck. Here's one approach to help you figure out what to do next and what to put off

• List all of your papers and assignments, with due dates.
• Determine the relative weight of each paper on your final grade.
• Determine the amount of time and effort required to complete each paper.
• Determine the relative importance of each of your classes. For example, is the class required or a prerequisite?
• How much time do you have?
• List the paper assignments in order of importance. Weigh papers for your important classes more heavily than those for your less important classes. Weigh papers that are worth a greater proportion of your grade more heavily than those that are worth less.

Now come the tough decisions. Is it better to spend a lot of time one paper that is worth 40% of your grade as compared with two papers for two different classes that are worth 25% of your grade? Look at your performance throughout the semester in order to answer this question.

Generally speaking, allocate more time on papers that are worth a large proportion of your grade, in classes that are important, and in classes in which you are not performing well.

Applicants to graduate school sometimes become so concerned about the more challenging aspects of the application, like recommendation letters and admissions essays, that they forget the easy stuff, like transcripts. Transcripts usually must be sent directly from the registrar's office at your school to the admissions office at the program to which you're applying. Request transcripts early because your school may take a week or more to process them. You don't want your application to be rejected because your transcripts didn't arrive on time.

Is graduate school right for you? Sometimes that's not the right question. Instead ask yourself "Should I go to grad school NOW?" Not all students go straight from undergrad to graduate school. Many take a year or more off. During that year or two you could improve your academic credentials, get great experience, or simply see what your career options are so that you make an educated discussion as to whether graduate school is right for you. Remember, you don't have to decide now; it's about timing.

You've submitted your application. Now what? What does the graduate admissions committee do? How do they process and make decisions about applications?