Graduate school directly after undergrad

[Piobaire]

You know, if you're doing something relatively easy, like a Master's in public policy or admin, you can just work a real job and go to school at the same time. It's not like law or b-school.

 

[rach2jlc]

Originally Posted by Pantisocrat

The most life-destroying thing you can do after taking a few years off is inviting/allowing the GF to live with you. She WILL NEVER move out. And you won't move on, especially when little kids are involved.

What does that have to do with going back for Grad School? We all know that there's no danger of Cunny even FINDING a woman, much less somehow getting her to agree to co-habitate with him.

 

[MrG]

Originally Posted by Connemara

I would almost positively be doing something with public policy/public admin., and if I did that I would also do a fellowship with a legislature or some similar program. So I wouldn't have 2 years of no work on my resume.

I just don't want to go to grad. school right now. I think I need the experience first but the state of the job market is very intimidating.

Pio: 4 years and 2 schools. Makes me want to work for a while TBH.

If you're serious about an MPA/MPP, I would say absolutely get some work experience, even if it's just a year or two. Among the people in my MPA program, those with a bit of experience fared much better, both in the program and in placement afterwards, than those without it. There were exceptions in both groups, but the difference was pretty amazing. It didn't even have to be relevant experience, just some type of experience that wasn't college.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

You know, if you're doing something relatively easy, like a Master's in public policy or admin, you can just work a real job and go to school at the same time. It's not like law or b-school.

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by Pantisocrat

The most life-destroying thing you can do after taking a few years off is inviting/allowing the GF to live with you. She WILL NEVER move out. And you won't move on, especially when little kids are involved.

I'm not sure what this has to do with grad school, but I'm a firm believer in not co-habitating before marriage. Not for religious or moral reasons of any sort, but because it leads to nothing but trouble. Tried it for about 2 years in my mid-20s and lived to regret it. It's especially tricky when/if the relationship starts to fall apart, and there you are, on the hook for her living situation. Suddenly, you've got the guilt of maybe having to kick her out added to the unholy cocktail of **** you need to drink in a dying relationship. Not fun.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by MrG

To be fair, I place one of my grad degrees in the same category. Worked full time and took full schedule of classes for it. B-school was another story.

 

[Pantisocrat]

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

What does that have to do with going back for Grad School?
If the point of the hiatus is to (re)gain a fresh take on life, the decisions you make in between can significantly alter the desire to return, never mind the realized benefits of returning. This is why, I'd just go ahead and do grad school directly.

 

[MrG]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

To be fair, I place one of my grad degrees in the same category. Worked full time and took full schedule of classes for it. B-school was another story.

I was (mostly) busting your chops.

I honestly think it depends upon your focus. I had two specializations in my MPA, Finance and Nonprofit Management. The latter I could have probably done while working, but the former would have been rough.

FWIW, I took an accounting class at the b-school while I was getting my MPA, and it didn't seem significantly more rigorous than a similar class I took in my MPA. This is obviously a painfully small, anecdotal, sample, but I didn't get the feeling the MBA students were working much harder than the MPA finance-specialized students.

 

[rjakapeanut]

Originally Posted by MrG

The biggest con I can think of is the fact that you'll hit your mid-20s before you ever leave the ivory tower. The people I knew in grad school who didn't take any time between degrees really seemed to be more sheltered than those who had even minimal experience in the real world.

wait, so if you decide you want to go to graduate school directly after undergrad you're sheltered?

seems really foolish.

 

[MrG]

Originally Posted by rjakapeanut

wait, so if you decide you want to go to graduate school directly after undergrad you're sheltered?

seems really foolish.

That's not what I said. I said they "seemed to be more sheltered." It was a subjective observation, and I presented it that way. I also didn't say every single person was sheltered.

I stand by my statement. You're not going to get the same life experience on a college campus as you are elsewhere, and I think that difference was obvious among those with whom I attended grad school. There tended to be a clear difference in attitude betwen those who'd gone outside the academic world for a bit between degrees and those who hadn't.

 

[gdl203]

I agree that the young kids in grad school erode the grad school experience for those who are more mature and experienced. There's not much to learn from them.

 

[rjakapeanut]

if they "seemed to be" more sheltered to you, then in your opinion they are "more sheltered".

don't split hairs here.

what was this difference in attitude?

 

[Svenn]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Svenn, the idea of going to law school horrifies me. A lot of people recommend it to me but in the next breath relay all sorts of horror stories. I don't see how it's worth it, especially when everyone is going in now expecting to ride out the recession...but will have a quadrillion competitors when the recession ends.
Agreed; I don't think I would ever recommend law school to someone unless they had connections to the field and could be assured of a job on graduation. I had family in the field thank god, and it's only when I got to law school that I saw how many students were floundering around job hunting, with no luck, all the way through school, and years after school as well. This is with $100k+ debt and 4 years of your life invested. While it's true nearly all of them will have lucrative careers eventually, the more mediocre, less connected students should be prepared for at least 5 years of toil and ladder climbing after graduation before they can even start thinking of 6-figure incomes.

Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard

I'm not sure what this has to do with grad school, but I'm a firm believer in not co-habitating before marriage. Not for religious or moral reasons of any sort, but because it leads to nothing but trouble. Tried it for about 2 years in my mid-20s and lived to regret it. It's especially tricky when/if the relationship starts to fall apart, and there you are, on the hook for her living situation. Suddenly, you've got the guilt of maybe having to kick her out added to the unholy cocktail of **** you need to drink in a dying relationship. Not fun.
I'll remember this. Breakups are indeed hard as it is, let alone with additional financial or residential consequences to either party. Probably the same applies to getting together with a girl of lower financial status- when you break up you gotta worry about 'ruining her life'- how her dreams of marrying a rich professional are now over, etc.

 

[MrG]

Originally Posted by rjakapeanut

if they "seemed to be" more sheltered to you, then in your opinion they are "more sheltered".

don't split hairs here.

what was this difference in attitude?

I'm not sure what you want from me here. If you're looking for a fight you'd probably have more luck in CE. I was simply providing an observation based upon my experience, and I've clearly hit a nerve.

That said, since you asked, some examples:

They tended to act as if grad school were an extension of their college years, which meant they spent as much time at the bar as they did in the library. This college-like attitude also extended to their studies, and they didn't approach graduate study as different than undergraduate study, and it is. They tended to have a disorted perspective of the world, and they lacked understanding of how life works when you're not in school. Like gdl said, they had little to contribute because they didn't have any life experience from which to draw.

Again, it wasn't ubiquitous, but it did seem to be common.

College provides one set of life experiences, and, due to its nature, it tends to keep other experiences at bay. This being the case, I don't see how it's so surprising that I would find the students whose entire life had been school to be different from their classmates who spent some time outside of formal education.

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by gdl203

I agree that the young kids in grad school erode the grad school experience for those who are more mature and experienced. There's not much to learn from them.

Originally Posted by MrG

They tended to act as if grad school were an extension of their college years, which meant they spent as much time at the bar as they did in the library. This college-like attitude also extended to their studies, and they didn't approach graduate study as different than undergraduate study, and it is. They tended to have a disorted perspective of the world, and they lacked understanding of how life works when you're not in school. Like gdl said, they had little to contribute because they didn't have any life experience from which to draw.

College provides one set of life experiences, and, due to its nature, it tends to keep other experiences at bay. This being the case, I don't see how it's so surprising that I would find the students whose entire life had been school to be different from their classmates who spent some time outside of formal education.

I agree with gdl and G here. There is a clear difference.

Everyone I knew in MBA programs had some sort of experience; whether it was at a commercial bank, a hedge fund, as an auditor, or even management experience of a non-profit or something.

In law school it was a mix of students, and in some classes that mix came out really strongly (pragmatic answers compared to philosophical answers).

Even in humanities programs, kids that go out and see the world (whether it's Teach for America or genocide research in Rwanda) have a lot more to add. Sometimes they have original research from their own field notebooks.

I will disagree about the partying though. At least me and my friends, people that have been out of school and come back appreciate it more, and party harder or more often. That went for law, med school, MBA, etc.

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by Svenn

I'll remember this. Breakups are indeed hard as it is, let alone with additional financial or residential consequences to either party. Probably the same applies to getting together with a girl of lower financial status- when you break up you gotta worry about 'ruining her life'- how her dreams of marrying a rich professional are now over, etc.
That's exactly what happened to me, as a matter of fact. I was the well-off professional, and my girlfriend of four years -- two of which we spent living together under my roof -- was from a working-class background and was very bad with money. She shopped incessantly and was constantly living from paycheck to paycheck. I neither encouraged nor supported her habits; she spent her own money that she made from her going-nowhere journalism career. By the time we were breaking up, I had to live with the guilt of kicking her out of my house, sending her off to find a new apartment, and her having basically no money saved up with which to do it. But I had to end things (she was pretty ******* crazy, and eventually I couldn't handle it anymore, despite her hotness). I wasn't about to let guilt keep her in my life. So I sent her on her way. As nuts as she was, she was still too good of a person, and too proud, to demand money from me. I actually offered to help find the apartment and cover the first two months' rent. She refused. At the end of the day, I had to remind myself that I was not responsible for her choices in life. If she didn't know how to cut her spending and save her money, despite my trying to teach her, that wasn't my fault. I owed her nothing. It sounds cold hearted, nevertheless, and that's why kicking her out was such an emotional mess for me. The fact that she was not a gold digger made it even harder, because it gave her some degree of moral high ground in the breakup and move out.