• Any Business class (e.g., Economics, Marketing, etc.)
• Business Psychology
• Industrial/Organizational (I/O)Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Lab course in Social Psychology or Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology
• Seminar in Social Psychology or Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology

• Overall GPA.
• Psychology GPA minor (if you have one).
• GPA last two years in college GPA.
• Maintaining a high GPA from your freshman year on
• If you do not get an A or B in a course you should probably repeat the course, especially if it is a Psychology course

• Get even more involved in research by doing a Senior Honors thesis or some other research where you can get your name on a conference presentation or journal publication. This kind of recognition is rare for an undergraduate and will really boost your standing when you apply for a job.
• You can get involved in research as part of Independent study course and thus earn credit hours and possibly increase your GPA if it counts as a graded course or volunteer.
• An advantage to working in a lab is that you get to know a faculty member who can write you a strong letter of recommendation when you are ready to apply for jobs. Given you need more than one letter of recommendation, it is probably best to work in two different labs as an undergraduate.

• By doing an internship you can again show your high level of motivation. This internship can be with an on-campus clinic/organization or off-campus clinic/organization dealing with business issues.

• There are a number of skills you can develop in addition to what you learn in classes and by conducting research-- computers, writing, and oral communication skills.

• Among others, you can volunteer at a company/business or some other organization that involves interacting with others.

• This involvement demonstrates a high level of motivation and interest in business. Any involvement just adds to your overall record and makes you a more competitive applicant.

• This can include a club on campus that involves education-related issues.
• Once again, this involvement demonstrates a high level of motivation and interest in business. Any involvement just adds to your overall record and makes you a more competitive applicant.

• It is not critical that you are employed in a business context as an undergraduate, but if you can get such a job that is a real bonus.

• Make sure you know what entrance exam you need to take to apply (Graduate Record Exam-GRE or Graduate Management Admissions Test-GMAT). The GRE and GMAT are standardized exams that almost everyone who applies to graduate school in business school must take. Each can be viewed as the “business SAT or ACT”. Because each is a standardized exam that means everyone across the country and even in the world takes the same exam in the same way.
• Your exam scores are extremely important. Because the exams are standardized, the argument is that this score allows each business school selection committee to compare your score in an equal fashion against all other applicants.
• This gets even more important if you are going to a college that is perceived as less strong academically. For example, if you go to the University of Kentucky (U.S. News and World Report college ranking of 129) and get a high GMAT score and a student going to Harvard (U.S. News and World Report college ranking of 2) gets a low GMAT score your application will likely be viewed as quite strong.
• Another way these exam scores can work for you is if you have only mediocre grades (e.g., a 3.20 overall GPA), but you score really high on an entrance exam your high score can, in effect, offset those modest grades.

• As far as preparing for the exams, some argue that you should begin preparing for the exams by your sophomore year. This would involve using exams practice books and software on a regular basis. You might also consider taking an exam course from a company like Princeton Review or Kaplan.

• It is very important that you start to interact with Professors right away. This can occur by making contributions in class or just going up to your Professors and having a conversation about issues in the field.
• These interactions can lead to being able to work in a Professor’s research lab, hearing about job opening that may be available in the Psychology department, and a letter of recommendation.
• Remember, if a faculty member does not really know you or had you in one class, there is a lower likelihood that the Professor will agree to write a letter for you or knows you well enough to write a letter.
• There are two important things to keep in mind with regard to letters of recommendation. First, a short letter of recommendation from a faculty member who does not know you well can sometimes be worse than no letter at all. Second, It is almost always better to have a letter of recommendation from a full-time Professor than an Instructor. For better or worse, the latter simply has higher status than the latter.

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