Everyone in college is asking themselves the same question: what am I going to do with my life? There are only a few college students who can actually answer that question; the rest are still wondering what’s next. If, like me, you were unsure what to do after graduation, you might think graduate school is the way to go. Besides, the job market sucks, so why not stay in college a few more years? Well, graduate school is not like undergraduate. It’s probably harder than you think.
Graduate students usually take a full course load of nine hours — seems easy, compared to 12 to 18 in undergraduate classes — but these classes are not like undergraduate studies. Each three-hour class is mostly discussion. You are usually discussing the reading you have done, usually between 50 and 100 pages per class.
In undergraduate classes you might be able to get away with skipping a night of homework, but when you are expected to do more than regurgitate what you read, you need a whole new way of thinking. Most of the time, professors don’t even go over what you read. They expect you to know it and then move onto more important issues.
Along with the schoolwork, most graduate programs have assistantships or internships in your chosen field. This isn’t a work-study job where you sit at a front desk, answer the phones or make copies. Your supervisor treats you as if you are not a student and trusts you with a variety of tasks.
Justin Bright, a graduate student in economics, explains one of his big duties as an intern at the Institute for Emerging Issues.
“I am working on IEI’s efforts in social enterprise and smart grid/smarter energy, as well as the 2011 Emerging Issues Forum on Healthcare,” Bright said. This is a test run for the real job you hope to have.
”Graduate school is a lot different than undergrad. There is easily double the amount of work. You can’t just go to class and listen and be fine on the exam. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that you have to do. The teachers go really fast and expect you to keep up. So falling behind on reading/work is easy to do,” Bright said.
Of course, there are plenty of rewarding moments in graduate school. You are taking classes that actually matter to you. No more math or English requirements; just you and classes that you will actually use in the future.
You are learning about the current issues in a field of your choice. You aren’t simply reading out of textbooks and learning about the past. You are constantly reading current journal and newspaper articles to learn about the present.
Because there is so much work to be done in graduate school, you have to be really into what you are studying. Bright said it best: “Make sure you want to go to graduate school and be passionate about what you are going for. It is not something that you can do half-heartedly. You need to be all in because it is a lot of work.”
Don’t fall back on graduate school when you don’t know what you want to do with your life. It’s too hard and too expensive to just be something to do for a few years until you figure your life out.
