Picture this, you’re entering your senior year of college and have no idea what you want to do come May. You’re not entirely sure you’re ready to go out into the “real” world and start your career, but your parents may be pressuring you to figure out what you want to do with your life. An option you should be considering is graduate school. I know, more school wasn’t exactly what you had in mind once you finished undergrad. However, sometimes we spend the 4 (or 6) years of undergrad focused on just making it to graduation with a vague idea of "what we want to be when we grow up". With everything going on, sometimes the plans for post-graduation don’t get a second thought until March of your last year. By then, half your friends have accepted job offers or plan to join the Peace Corps. If neither of these routes sound appealing, you have options. First, don’t panic, just consider grad school as an option. Here are some reasons why grad school might be a good option.
1. You Get to be In Control of Your Research and Studies
You get to focus on a subject you’re really passionate about and then contribute research to that field. You majored in agriculture but want to do a study on hydroponics and the long-term effects, grad school opens doors to conduct and publish the research. If you really enjoy the research, plenty of programs offer the opportunity to do research as part of your graduate assistantship.
2. The Perks of a Graduate Assistantship
Speaking of assistantships, don’t do grad school without one. It pays for a good amount or all of your tuition in exchange for work. If you don’t have a company paying for your grad school, an assistantship is the way to go. Plus, you get really good experience and build a solid network before you enter the workforce. Ultimately, try to get experience from your assistantship that is transferable to other jobs you may have in the future. For example, if you work in student affairs, you probably gain really good customer service and people skills. Make the most of the two years you work this job, it could morph into your career.
3. You Don't Know What You Want Right Now, and That's Fine!
My former instructors and professors might cringe at me writing this, but sometimes 20-somethings don’t know what they want in life so grad school gives them an extra couple of years to figure it out. Obviously, you should go in with some idea of what you want so you don't end up in a program studying astrophysics when really you're interested in meteorology. I’m not saying students get to spend two years messing around with graduate level courses. However, students in grad school do get a few years to decide if they want to continue their education or go into the industry when they finish. Students who go to grad school without knowing what they want long-term have an opportunity to learn and explore academia on a different level than undergrad. This exploration could lead to the student wanting to pursue a career in academia or higher education.
4. Your Cohort = Built in Grad School Friends
Your cohort will become people you lean on during the rough patches of grad school. Since you all have to take many of the same courses during your time in grad school, you learn to work together. The relationships you’ll build are definitely worth the adventure of grad school. You'll always be able to look back on that professor who made everyone cry and say "Yeah, remember when Dr. So-and-so was ready to fail the entire class because none of us knew what was going on?" "Totes, good times, man." I'm sure the dialogue will be significantly less vague and more interesting. Even the folks you don’t become super close with, remain part of a network you can easily tap into later in life. Bottom line, don't undervalue grad school cohorts.
6. A New Experience That Will Benefit You Long-Term
Overall, the experience of grad school is enough of a reason to attend. Every day you get to learn something new and then apply it to your own research. You get so much autonomy in what you want to do in your education. Say you want to study communication, and within communication you're interested in interpersonal communication. You have the final say on what you want to explore in interpersonal communication, whether it be romantic relationships, family relationships, or even the use of emojis between two people. You become the captain of your ship. Your thesis chair becomes your navigator so you stay on course (because graduating is important). With the power to decide your study's focus, you’re pushed and challenged and some days you sit in your favorite bar drinking to forget about the research paper you have due in two days. At the end, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief and show up to graduation tipsy because you didn’t bust your butt for two years not to enjoy the celebration of it being over.
Should you choose to attend graduate school, start doing your research now. Deadlines for applications come up quickly, especially since you may still be in the middle of trying to finish your senior year. Pay attention to deadlines for assistantship as well, since one can pay for grad school. Don't overthink everything that comes with grad school, just figure out where you want to be and find a way to get there. The rest will come when you start digging into this new chapter of life.
