Congratulations! You’ve (hopefully) made some amazing friends you’ll keep for life, written in countless blue books, consumed more pizza than you ever imagined you’d see in your lifetime and maybe even studied abroad for a semester or a summer. However, the real world is calling—or is it? Some students go on after college graduation and begin a career, while others choose to start graduate school. An advanced degree is necessary for certain fields, but for others, it’s just an option. Not totally sold on more years of school, or wondering what your next steps should be? Here are 10 reasons NOT to go to grad school.
1. The “real world” may be more helpful for your career instead.
While it’s true that an advanced degree is required for some fields such as law or medicine, other fields place more emphasis on gaining field experience or working for several years instead of immediately (or ever) going after a graduate degree. Lots can be learned from starting a career or moving away from campus and learning to live on your own.
Barbara Schneider, admissions director for the MBA program at the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri-Columbia, explains, “‘Real world’ experience is always of value to a student starting a career or uncertain about a career path to follow. You’ve been in school a long time and you learn many different things by being a working professional… Any job you have will help you learn more about what you like and what you don’t like, so it can guide your future career steps… [Graduate programs] should not be done just to stay around school a little longer and avoid the working world!”
For Maddy Harrington from Mount Holyoke College, skipping grad school is more helpful than hurtful. “As someone who’s interested in creative writing as a career choice, I don’t think graduate school is a good use of my time,” she says. “I think the best thing for someone in my position to do is to leave school and jump headfirst into the writing field. Experience will do more for me than another two years in a classroom.”
2. You don’t get to live and act like an undergrad when you’re a grad student.
The past four years may have been filled with crazy parties, awesome late-night study sessions, 1 a.m. food runs and other fun memories that are a cornerstone of the college experience, but graduate school is a different place. Instead of hanging out with your sorority sisters or going out with the cute guy from your political science class, your evenings and weekends are about to be filled grading papers, writing and researching. Keep in mind that you’ll still likely be surrounded by undergraduate students—an experience that might make you long for the past four years and won’t seem as fun now that you’re no longer one of them.
3. Landing a teaching position is harder to come by than it used to be.
According to the American Association of University Professors, more than half of all faculty members hold part-time appointments, and 68 percent of all people teaching in colleges and universities in the United States hold non-tenure-track positions. With a growing number of students earning Ph.D.s in the U.S., (up 22 percent from 1998 to 2006 according to an article published by The Economist) the chances of landing a job at a university are becoming more and more narrow. Another study by The Chronicle of Higher Education conducted in 2003 suggests that out of all newly admitted graduate students pursuing an advanced degree in a field such as English, one out of five will make it to a tenure-track professor position. An advanced degree such as a Ph.D. in the humanities no longer guarantees a job with lots of security and handsome benefits.
5. Getting an advanced degree doesn’t automatically single you out as a better or more qualified potential employee.
Sometimes work experience is seen as more valuable in the eyes of a potential employer than are a few more years in school. Employers want to hire people who they know will be able to come in and do the job, and often prior work experience is the best reflection of that. Simply having graduate-level experience doesn’t always translate to skills that are useful in the workplace.
5. Going to grad school might mean you have to put important life milestones on hold.
As a graduate student, your focus immediately shifts from the excitement surrounding graduation to the stress created by attempting to balance your own work, as well as teach or assist professors with undergraduate classes. School schedules can make it difficult to see family and friends, and makes it much more difficult to experience things your fellow undergrad classmates will start going through such as the thrill of entering the workplace, getting married and starting a family, buying or renting your first place off-campus, and other important steps towards adulthood. That’s not to say these things can’t happen in grad school, but you’re not part of the “real world” track.
[pagebreak]
6. Your workload will be more in-depth and intense as a grad student.
The degree and difficulty of coursework associated with graduate school is a definite factor that needs to be considered when examining post-graduate options. Schneider elaborates, “In areas such as science or engineering where substantial background in the subject area is required prior to entering the graduate level, the work is at a higher and more focused level.” Sometimes, it might be helpful to get a preview of a graduate course. Michelle Heck, an admissions official at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law describes, “Many times students are unsure if [a graduate degree earned in an organization like law school] is something they really want to do. In that case we encourage students to come sit in on a law school class, talk to students, and check out the environment. This can either solidify the decision they would like to go or decide they really have no desire.”
Gone are the days where you can take a course in flower arranging or religion and folklore in the Harry Potter series offered by your university for something fun to do. Most, if not all of your focus will be on the narrow area you choose to concentrate on for graduate studies, leaving little room to change or grow into a different field of study. Make sure you’re ready and focused for a highly specialized program.
7. You might not have the time or resources to be a full-time grad student.
While remaining a full-time student isn’t required for many graduate programs, especially with the many online options available to obtain degrees, many professors and program directors agree that full-time participation in a program yields the best results. Says Schneider, “If it is possible for you to attend a graduate program full-time, it does offer a different experience. You can immerse yourself in a program, focus primarily on the academic work (instead of squeezing it in among other pressing demands of work and home), and also participate in other activities which enrich your experience.”
She cites examples of previous students that have had opportunities to pursue “internships abroad, participat[ion] in case competitions, work with fellow students on innovative business ideas, and work as a graduate assistant, often in a field relevant to their career interests.” Schneider also points out that “these opportunities aren’t available in a part-time or online program.” Only having partial time or room in your schedule for a graduate program could lead to missed opportunities.
8. You’re not good at working with a stressful schedule or under a lot of pressure.
Graduate students Ceyhun Elgin and Mario Solis-Garcia from the University of Minnesota describe a typical day in the life of an economics PhD candidate: “Social life. Leisure time. Say goodbye to both of them… It is not uncommon to start your day at 7:00 a.m. to discover you’re going to bed at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., and repeat again. And then, you discover that you’ve been working all day long, no breaks except for food/classes/teaching (this last one, in case you’re TAing). You should be able to program yourself to accept this as a way of life during the first year, possibly the second, third and fourth too!” For some, this level of commitment is worth the stress, but for others, it could be a good reason to think twice about grad school.
9. Graduate school is expensive!
According to U.S. News’s Education section, many schools are raising in-state graduate program costs to close to $30,000 to feed an ever growing need for cash to fund university programs and operating costs. Private schools can cost almost 30 percent or more for tuition and living expenses. Sadly, the number of grants and scholarships available to fund graduate studies is also shrinking. Is a graduate degree simply a necessary cost to shoulder in order to get a job with a high salary?
Even employers aren’t willing to help cover the cost of grad school as much as they used to be. The same article states, “The percentage of employers who don’t offer any reimbursement at all for graduate study jumped to 44 percent last year, up from 35 percent in 2007, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. And those employers who still offer some reimbursement benefits have become stingier and tougher, some graduate students report.”
For some, graduate school is a necessary step for achieving their career goals, but for others, the steep cost is something that potential graduate students should think twice about.
10. A graduate degree no longer guarantees a high-paying job.
An article published in 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education offers a grim reality check concerning the relationship between an advanced degree and the likelihood of finding a higher-paying position. The author of the article, a professor at a liberal arts college in the Midwest reveals, “many faculty members make less than fast-food workers,” and many “have no health benefits.” It’s no secret that the number of people who pursue advanced degrees increases significantly during tough economic times, but what many students don’t realize is that an influx in the number of graduate students translates to an influx of those entering the market looking for an upper-level position upon completion of school in fields where job growth simply isn’t occurring at a fast rate, and in some cases, is actually shrinking.
Simply having an advanced degree no longer guarantees or even gives someone a significant advantage in finding a higher paying job with more reverence. Weigh this factoid against another one the author tosses out in a follow-up article: “According to the Humanities Indicators Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, about 23 percent of humanities students end up owing more than $30,000, and more than 14 percent owe more than $50,000.”
Of course, it’s important to consider a huge decision like whether or not to begin a graduate program and weigh all of your options against your personality and position in life. Make sure to do your own research, and be sure what you’re getting yourself into. Ultimately, it is your choice. Only you can know what the best move to make regarding your future is. Make it confidently, and don’t be afraid to go after anything and everything that comes your way!
Sources:
Ceyhun Elgin and Mario Solis-Garcia, University of Minnesota
Maddy Harrington, Mount Holyoke College 2012
Michelle Heck, Admissions Official for the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law
Barbara Schneider, Admissions Director for the MBA program at the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri-Columbia
“The disposable academic: Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time”
“Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go”
Looking to Save for Grad School? Here’s How
“So You Want to go to Graduate School?”