Looking Ahead to Graduate School

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The fact is, if you are committed to going straight to graduate school after college without taking any time off, you must begin the planning process at the start of your junior year.

We know you haven't decided whether that Ph.D. in psychology is right for you. We know that despite your love for the subject matter, you haven't yet been able to figure out what you would actually do with a master's in American studies.

And we know you haven't figured out what you're going to do if you eventually want to earn an MBA, as getting into business school straight out of college and without any real-world business experience is a statistical improbability.

The reason we're tackling this subject early is for precisely those reasons. You need the appropriate lead time to actually think about these things before you get ambushed by application season. By then it will be too late to do any serious thinking about whether the degree or the program is right for you. You'll be too busy studying for the entrance exams, completing applications, and traveling the country interviewing to figure out whether that next great ladder you're about to climb is leaning against the right wall. 

Approaching The Decision

The first thing you really need to decide is whether you actually want to go directly from college to graduate school, or whether you will want to take some time off in between to explore other interests, travel, or just decompress and reflect on what your college years have taught you about the world and your potential roles in it before you commit to your next journey. That decision is an intensely personal one - but one that nevertheless tends to be influenced by factors that many people experience. We'll look at a few of these factors here.

Countering the Will of Your Parents

The primary influence is likely to be the will of your parents.

"We never took any time off after college," they will argue. "You had four years of college to screw around and find yourself. It's time for you either to get your graduate degree or to go out and get a job and start earning some money."

Sound familiar?

Or how about this one: "If you don't go directly to med school [law school, grad school], you'll get bound up in something else in the world and you'll never go back." (To which we have to be restrained from yelling out, "Yeah, so?")

Or this one: "If you go now, we'll pay for it. If you take time off, though, you're on your own."

Whatever the argument used against you, remember one thing"and one thing only. It is your life, and this is your decision. Once you make the decision to apply to graduate school and you get in, the direction of your life will become much more certain and much more immutable. Each graduate school experience comes with an enormous set of commitments and a well-worn path of expectations that will consume your weekends, your vacations, and your summers.

There won't be any time to write a novel once you're in med school.

There won't be an opportunity to hike the Appalachian Trail, spend a summer (or longer) backpacking across Europe, or drive across the United States with your friends. You can't go back to your old job as a summer camp counselor, work in the Peace Corps, do Teach for America, try to make it with your rock band, or follow your dream to perform Shakespeare in summer stock theater.

When you commit to graduate school, you are setting your course for the future. And closing the doors to a lot of other things you've always wanted to do.

Are you ready for that?

If you know you're not, no amount of parental influence, pressure, or bribery should push you to the contrary decision. You need to know you are ready to go to graduate school. And you'll know when you know. If you're not charged up to spend the next four months holed up studying for the GMAT, MCAT, or LSAT, you're not ready.