“Why would you want to go back to undergrad when you’re already a graduate student?”
It’s a fair question, and one I get often. I even wonder that myself sometimes. I have a simple answer, though: personalization.
Graduate school is a great opportunity to excel in a particular field, especially if you are pursuing a professional degree, while undergrad is primarily to gain knowledge and prepare a good foundation for future academic and vocational development.
Imagine receiving professional training for a particular field, just as doctors go to medical school, or counselors study mental health, all while having an outlet to personalize and apply that professional training—that is my relationship between grad and undergrad studies.
I am a Master of Divinity student receiving broad professional training in biblical and systematic theology, church history and Christian thought, counseling, educational ministries, mission and evangelism, New Testament studies and languages, Old Testament studies and Semitic languages, and pastoral theology, all to prepare me for vocational service and leadership in a church or related Christian institution.
While I study for my master’s degree, I am also pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in English. Here, I have personalized and can apply what I am learning professionally to write and publish both nonfiction and fiction content that is explicitly, thematically, or unrelated to Christian topics and issues.
For example, I am passionate about writing about the Church’s need for a reevaluation of its perspective on mental illness. Or, I could write fiction that is similar to The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, though I could never be that remarkable of a writer, which has thematic elements to Christianity, or fiction that just has religious notions, but isn’t promoting any particular Christian themes, such as in Dune by Frank Herbert. The possibilities are numerous.
Being a duel-degree student, though, is not without its difficulties. Apparently, I am the first student at my school, along with my best friend, who has pursued a bachelor’s degree while a master’s degree student. So all of the consequences of that should be assumed.
In order to retain my generous scholarships, I need to maintain my full-time status as a grad student, all while still trying to figure out scholarships for the undergrad side. So money is an issue.
The classes on both sides of the campus don’t align nicely with one another, as there is much overlap. So I’m forced to find modulars, night classes, and online classes to meet my degree requirements.
Fortunately, the way I learn best is through reading and writing, rather than sitting in a classroom, which tends to be dreadfully long (approximately 3 hours in grad classes).
I am lucky to be going to a grad school, however, which has so many working and commuting students, so the classes are accommodating for people with jobs or who are located far away, and thus I can slip into those for when there are scheduling conflicts.
Although this balance isn’t without its issues, ultimately, I think it’s worth it, especially when I get to personalize and apply what I am learning in grad school. If you have an opportunity and capability to pursue two degrees, I would definitely recommend you look into it.
You won’t have your whole life to spend in high education, so please, get as much as you can while you can—learning is always worth the journey.
