I recommend these articles to students who are interested in applying to graduate school.

• Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students by Stephen C. Stearns (pdf)
• A primer on how to apply to and get admitted to graduate school in ecology and evolutionary biology (commentary) by Walter P. Carson (pdf)
• Reply to Stearns: Some acynical advice for graduate students by Raymond B. Huey (pdf)
• Suggestions for new and aspiring graduate students in wildlife science by Richard A. Fischer and Sammy L. King (pdf)
• Some pragmatic advice to graduate students: a hybridization of Stearns, Huey, and Binkley (commentary) by Brian W. Witz (pdf)