Once you graduate, you will become a “grad.” And if you decide to stay in school, you will be a different type of “grad”: a graduate student.
April Klimkiewicz, assistant director of career advisement and pre-professional services in the Office of Career Development, said the first step in looking for a graduate school is determining if graduate school is right for you and examining your reasons for going.
“If it’s to do the work that you’re passionate about, that’s a great reason to go,” Klimkiewicz said. “If it’s because you really don’t know what to do, then it’s a good idea to talk to a career adviser and make sure that you really do want to go to graduate school or to think about what else is out there that you might want to do.”
Robert Keever, career adviser at the Office of Career Development, said students should look at their interests.
“They have to find out what is it they want to do to make sure it’s something that they’re going to be happy with,” Keever said.
Klimkiewicz said going straight to graduate school after graduating is not the only option. Students should look at their undergraduate major, their personality, their interests, abilities and values to determine what they want to do. Students may decide that graduate school isn’t for them or that it’s for later.
“Sometimes, it’s a good idea to get some experience before you go to graduate school, and sometimes the company will even pay for you to go to graduate school,” she said.
There is another advantage to waiting for graduate school.
“A lot of times, a lot of graduate schools and professional schools like older students who have applied to the program because they know that these people have worked in the field and made the determination that this is really what they want to do,” Klimkiewicz said.
Klimkiewicz suggested that students use GradSchools.com, a Web site where users can search graduate programs and where they are located, to find the right graduate school. The Office of Career Development offers access to Discover, a Web program from American College Testing, which allows students to search for graduate schools by subject and location.
“Once you’ve narrowed down the schools that have programs that you’re interested in, go to those school’s Web sites and compare them to each other: how long is the program? How much does it cost? What degree will you have and what will you be able to do with that degree?” Klimkiewicz said.
Keever said students should research the resources that the school has available. If the schools’ academic programs are similar, students should look at the faculty and the opportunities the schools offer.
“It goes really beyond the academics,” Keever said. “It really is about looking at the environment of the campus and seeing if you see yourself fitting there.”
Klimkiewicz said students should think long-term about graduate school. Students should do internships or work to determine if they are applying to the program that they truly want to work in before putting their time and money into graduate school.
“For example, if you go straight to your master’s program from your undergraduate, there are going to be people in your classes who have been working for 10 years, so you’re going to be graduating with little or no work experience,” she said. “You’re competing against people who actually have experience in the field.”
Keever said that there are advantages and disadvantages to staying in the same school for graduate studies. For example, if you are going to stay in the same school, you already have connections there, so you can speak to the faculty and find out if you like it.
“The disadvantage depends on the type of program you do,” Keever said. “A lot of people say that if you stay in the same university, you don’t have a lot of diversity. But whether you stay or not depends on the type of education you want.”
Keever said the number one mistake students make about graduate school is not taking enough time to think about the effort that goes into it.
“Start doing research to find out whether it’s going to be good for you and if it’s going to be something you want to do,” Keever said. “And make sure the field you want to go into is actually what you think it is.”
