Further Study: grad school application tools
Everything a graduate application asks you to produce — a converted GPA, a statement of purpose that fits the word limit, a cold email a professor will actually answer, a recommendation request, a CV, a timeline. Free, no sign-up, and every tool runs entirely in your browser.
What this module covers
A graduate application is really a document-production project with a deadline. Different countries grade on different scales, every programme sets its own word limits, and the two pieces that move the needle most — your statement of purpose and your letters of recommendation — are the ones nobody teaches you to produce.
These pages handle the mechanical parts so you can spend your time on the writing: convert and sanity-check the numbers, count the words against the limit, structure the documents, draft the emails, and lay the whole cycle out on a calendar.
- Numbers first. Convert your grades between scales, then check the arithmetic on what the whole application cycle will cost you.
- Documents second. Structure and word-budget the statement of purpose, build the academic CV, and keep both inside the limits.
- People third. The cold email to a prospective advisor and the recommendation request are short, high-stakes messages. Both get templates and a line-by-line explanation of why each sentence is there.
- Time throughout. Work backwards from your own deadlines instead of trusting a generic calendar — programme dates change every cycle.
Tools and guides
Scores & numbers
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Tool
GPA Converter
Convert a percentage, a 4.0 GPA, a UK degree classification, an ECTS grade or a German 1.0–5.0 mark into the other scales — with the caveats each conversion deserves.
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Tool
Application Cost Calculator
Add up application fees, score reports, transcripts and credential evaluation across every programme on your list, and see what a fee waiver would save.
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Guide
Do You Need to Take the GRE?
Which programmes still ask for it, which have dropped it for good, and how to weigh a strong score against the time it takes to earn one.
Statement of purpose
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Tool
SOP Word Counter
Live word, character and page count for a statement of purpose, measured against the limit you set — with a warning band before you go over.
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Tool
SOP Outline Generator
Turn a word limit into a paragraph-by-paragraph budget with a prompt for each section, then copy the outline out and write into it.
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Tool
PhD Research Proposal Outline Generator
Turn a proposal's page or word limit into a section-by-section budget — background, research questions, methodology, timeline — with a prompt for each part.
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Guide
SOP for MS in Computer Science
What a CS admissions committee is actually reading for, an annotated paragraph structure, and the mistakes that sink otherwise strong applications.
Same structure, other fields: MBA · Data Science · Mechanical Engineering · Biology PhD
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Guide
Personal Statement vs Statement of Purpose
The two documents get asked for under different names by different programmes. What each one is actually for, and how to tell which prompt you are answering.
Emails that decide things
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Tool
Cold Email to a Professor
Build a short, specific enquiry to a prospective supervisor from your own details — plus a line-by-line breakdown of why each sentence earns its place.
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Tool
Recommendation Request Email
Templates for every situation: the professor who knows you well, the one who barely does, a manager, a polite nudge, and the thank-you afterwards.
Planning & decisions
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Tool
Application Timeline Planner
Enter your earliest deadline and get a month-by-month checklist working backwards from it, saved in your browser as you tick items off.
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Tool
Grad School Application Tracker
Track every programme on your list in one table — status, deadline, documents sent, decision — saved in your browser as you update it.
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Guide
Academic CV Template
Section order, what belongs in each one, how an academic CV differs from a résumé, and copy-ready plain-text and LaTeX templates.
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Guide
PhD vs Master's
Funding, length, supervision, admissions bar and career outcomes compared side by side — and the questions that actually decide it for you.
Interviews, offers & waitlists
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Tool
F-1 Visa Interview Questions
Build a framework for the most common F-1 visa interview questions — funding, ties to home, study plans — with prompts for answering each one in your own words.
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Guide
Grad School Interview Questions
How a graduate admissions interview differs from a job interview, the questions that come up most often, and a structure for preparing answers about your own work.
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Guide
What Is a Conditional Offer?
What a conditional offer actually commits a programme to, the conditions that most often attach to one, and what happens if you do not meet them.
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Guide
Waitlisted for Grad School
What a waitlist decision does and does not mean, whether a letter of continued interest helps, and how to keep your other options open while you wait.
A sensible order to work through them
- Step 01 · Before you shortlist Fix your numbers. Convert your GPA so you can read a programme's stated minimum in your own scale, and price the cycle before you commit to a list length.
- Step 02 · Three to four months out Contact people. For research degrees, a specific email to a prospective supervisor should go out well before the deadline — and your recommenders need the ask long before they need the letter.
- Step 03 · Two to three months out Draft the documents. Outline the statement of purpose against the real word limit, and get the CV into the academic format.
- Step 04 · The final month Tailor and submit. Every statement gets rewritten for its programme, and every word count gets checked against that programme's own limit — not a generic one.
One rule that outranks everything on this page: whatever the programme's own application instructions say, they win. Requirements, limits and deadlines change every cycle and vary between departments inside the same university. Use these tools to do the work; use the official page to confirm the rules.
Related elsewhere on CampusBreeze
Frequently asked questions
Are these grad school application tools free?
Yes. Every page in this module is free, needs no account, and runs entirely inside your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded anywhere — the calculations and templates are computed locally, and pages that remember your progress store it only in your own browser's local storage, which you can clear at any time.
Is a converted GPA official?
No. Our converter shows you the commonly used equivalences so you can read a programme's stated requirement in a scale you understand. The only number that counts on an application is the one produced by the receiving institution or by the credential evaluation service it asks you to use, and different evaluators apply different methods to the same transcript.
What is the difference between a statement of purpose and a personal statement?
In most US graduate admissions, a statement of purpose is about your academic and research trajectory: what you have worked on, what you want to work on, and why this department can support it. A personal statement, where a programme asks for one separately, is about background, context and motivation. Some universities use the two terms interchangeably, so read the prompt on the programme's own application page before you decide which one you are writing.
Should I email professors before applying?
For research degrees — a PhD, or a thesis-based master's where you are matched to a supervisor — a short, specific email to a prospective advisor is normal and often expected. For taught or course-based master's programmes admitted by a committee, it usually changes nothing. Check how the department describes its admissions process before spending your effort there.
How far in advance should I ask for letters of recommendation?
Ask early enough that your recommender can say yes without rearranging their month, and give them the materials — your CV, your draft statement, the deadline and the submission link — at the moment they agree. Many faculty publish their own notice requirements on their pages; when they do, that is the number to follow rather than any general rule of thumb.
Do you use AI to write my statement of purpose?
No. There is no AI, no server and no upload anywhere in this module. The writing tools give you structure, word budgets and templates; the sentences have to be yours. Many programmes now ask applicants to certify that their essays are their own work, and an admissions reader who has seen the same generated paragraph fifty times will recognise the fifty-first.
Where to check official information
Nothing on this page substitutes for a programme's own instructions. These are the primary sources worth reading directly:
- ETS — GRE — the official source for GRE test content, score reporting and score interpretation tables.
- World Education Services — a widely used credential evaluation service; its policies show how an official conversion is actually produced.
- Council of Graduate Schools — US graduate education policy and admissions practice, including the resolution many member institutions follow on offer and acceptance deadlines.
- NAFSA: Association of International Educators — guidance on international student advising and credential practice.
- The admissions page of every single programme on your list. It outranks all of the above, and all of us.