Should You Go to Graduate School?

Going to graduate school is a big decision--personally and financially. It can also be a strategic career move. Along with the decision to apply to graduate school and how to pay for it is the decision of when to go. Should you try to go to grad school immediately after undergraduate school? Or should you wait a few years? This is a popular question I receive from students, even though my channel is primarily targeted at navigating the undergraduate college years. In my opinion, there's an equal number of factors to consider for attending grad school right after college and deciding to wait. So here are some points to consider:

1) You’re already in the mode of going to college. Some students find it easier to just keep going to college for their master's degree because they know if they take time off from school they won’t be able to get back into studying and back into a college mode. So if that’s you, maybe you need to consider applying during your senior year of college and plan on attending right away.

2) Some disciplines and programs prefer you to attend graduate school immediately following undergraduate school, medical school for example, and several other professional programs. This is so you don’t forget what you learned in the undergraduate courses and the graduate courses can start right away building on that foundational knowledge you already have. Check with your academic advisor. You might not have a choice of when to attend, depending on your career goals.

3) Some colleges will heavily discount graduate school for high achieving undergraduate students. If you have a high GPA, higher than 3.5 for example, you may be offered by your college to stay for graduate school at a reduced rate. This is always worth checking into.

4) If you don’t have a job lined up after graduation and you want to explore another avenue within your discipline attending graduate school right away can give you that opportunity to network, more time to find a job, and investigate other opportunities like research.

Those are all reasons why it makes sense to attend graduate school immediately after college. On the other hand, it is not ideal for everyone. Here are some reasons to wait:

1. Some students really need a break from school, and while they envision themselves earning a master’s degree at some point in the future, they are too burnt out to continue. Forcing yourself to attend more college when you know you are sick of school at the moment and not ready to gear up for more studying is not a good idea.

2. A lot of students need and want to work full time for a few years first, figure out what they want to concentrate on for a career path, and then that decides when and if they pursue a graduate degree.

3. Some employers will pay for your master’s degree, which is an excellent reason to wait to go to graduate school. If you think this might be the case for you, start researching and make this part of your investigation efforts when you compare job offers.

4. Some students change careers, end up in a career path that requires them to earn a master’s degree, such as teaching, and then that becomes the reason they return for graduate school, even though they hadn’t originally planned on graduate school. Many graduate programs require you to take the GRE Graduate Record Exam or the GMAT Graduate Management Admission Test and submit those scores. Both the GRE and GMAT are about 3.5 hours long. I recommend you to use a test prep program like Study.com and use my coupon code CollegeConversations to get 30% the first 3 months. Ideally, you want to spend about 3 months preparing for these standardized tests. The main reason is that it will be an investment in your future because most of the time you’ll only take the GRE or GMAT once, submit your scores, and go to graduate school. Graduate school applicants are working a lot of times and have less time to take the exam multiple times like maybe they did in high school with the SAT or ACT. If you’re already working you have limited time to study for the GRE or GMAT you can use the app for Study.com and prepare yourself during small blocks of time throughout the day. You’ll also be able to test yourself and see where you need more help. Study.com has practice tests from as late as 2022 so you can really get a good idea of how well you will be able to do on the GRE or GMAT. What I like is that Study.com accommodates different learning styles, so you can find review material that works for you. You might need to review math questions for the quantitative reasoning part of the GRE just to be sure you can answer those types of questions. Some of the skill in taking the test is in recognizing how their asking the question and what they’re looking for.

So to answer the question should you go to graduate school right away—it depends! But here are four reasons to continue right away and four equally compelling reasons to wait a few years. Hopefully, I gave you some factors to consider. Good luck to everyone!