Grad School Bound?

If you’re a senior, there’s a good chance you’ve considered going to graduate school. You might have friends who are going and wondered if you should as well. Or maybe somebody has told you that a bachelor’s degree is what a high school diploma used to be and you need an advanced degree to get ahead.  Here are some good reasons to go to graduate school along with not so good reasons.

• Your career goals require graduate degree.  Some fields absolutely require graduate school, for example, speech pathologist, lawyer or counselor.  In this case, your decision is easy because you have to go to graduate school to achieve your goal.  But remember to have a backup plan in case you don’t get admitted.

• A graduate degree will offer more career opportunities, advancement, and higher salaries.  In many areas, like psychology, biology or public administration, you will have more career options with an advanced degree. In this case, you could likely find work with your bachelor’s degree, but it might not be the kind of work you want to do long term.  Continuing your education will often provide the skills and experiences needed for higher level positions in the field.

• You hold a true passion for a subject area or desire to conduct research.  If you love your major, whether it’s philosophy or physics or anything in between, and want to take your knowledge to the next level, graduate school could be the way to go.  Often people who have interests such as these want to teach or research and share their knowledge with others, much as a university professor would do. 

• Graduate school provides an opportunity to change fields.  At some point during your undergraduate education, you may decide that you don’t like your major any more or you discover a new interest after it’s too late to change majors.  Graduate school is a good way to redirect your career goals.  In many cases, graduate programs will accept students from a wide variety of backgrounds. I majored in business as an undergrad but studied counseling in a master’s program without taking any additional prerequisite courses.

And the not so good reasons… Don’t go to graduate school to avoid a full-time job or because you don’t really know what you want to do in life.  Graduate school is a big investment of your time and money. It’s not ok to be an undecided grad student!  At this point in your education, you should have a somewhat specific career goal in mind and know that the degree you’re pursuing will prepare you for that field. If you don’t, look for an alternative experience for one to two years while you figure it out.

Once you’ve decided to pursue graduate school, utilize Career Services to help you navigate the admissions process. We have many resources (http://career.utk.edu/graduate.php)  on our website to help you get started and College Consultants on staff available to assist you.  You won’t want to miss this week’s presentation, Gaining Admission to Highly Competitive Graduate Programs featuring Donald Asher.  See our events calendar for details.  

Author: Stephanie Kit - Associate Director, Career Planning