Sixteen years of teachers, classrooms, books, and homework, and $50,000-plus to attend college, and now you’re thinking about graduate school. Is graduate school really the right step toward your future?
First, consider these questions:
- Do you have a clear idea of the career you want to pursue? Is a graduate degree a requirement for your career, will it make employment easier, or could it make your job search difficult because you’ll be seen as “overqualified” for your field?
- Who wants you to go to graduate school? Is it in your interests or motivation pushing for the advanced degree—or are you responding to advice from parents or friends?
- What can you do with your B.A. or B.S.? If you’re afraid that there’s nothing you can do with your major in history, explore your career choices at the career services center on your college campus.
- Will the time and money you spend on graduate school repay you for money and experience you will earn if you take a job begun immediately after graduation?
- Is there another avenue for continued learning? For instance, could you gain the marketable skills and knowledge you want through professional seminars and workshops or community college classes?
- If you put off graduate school for three years, are there things you will gain?
Don’t choose graduate school because you think you won’t find a job. “Some people say, ‘If I don’t get a job, I’ll go to graduate school.’ It shouldn’t be your default option,” says Richard Fein, director of placement, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
And don’t choose graduate school because you don’t want to find a job, or you are unsure of what your career interests really are. You’ll be expected to have clearly defined goals when you get to graduate school.
Another consideration is whether you should attend graduate or professional school immediately after college or if you should attend graduate school as a full-time student. Fein advises students to seriously consider working for a couple of years or going to school part time while holding a full-time job. In fact, some M.B.A. schools won’t admit students who haven’t had work force experience. “A degree coupled with experience is more valuable than one without experience,” he says.
In some fields, Fein says, a student with a graduate degree who has had no real experience beyond internships will be at a disadvantage. Even if you are bright, an M.B.A. and no experience makes you harder to place. Your expectations will be higher, but your value won’t be higher. You will have an inflated price tag.
“Experience, being able to make decisions that have an impact in the real world and knowing how to play office are important,” he says. “Before you go to work you may have potential, but after you’ve been working, you have credibility. You’ve been tested; you can apply what you’ve learned to real-life situations.”
Going to school and holding a full-time job is hard combination, Fein says. “However, when you get that degree, it will enhance your marketability.”