Graduate school directly after undergrad

[Connemara]

What are the pros and cons of doing this? By "graduate school" I'm referring to short term programs like a JD, MA, etc., not necessarily 10-year PhD programs.

 

[uvmboi13]

Pro: You are getting right to it and will get that degree.

Con: No break and you might burn out?

 

[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.

 

[seanchai]

Cons: You'll end up with an MA.

Sincerely, MAIS Student

 

[GQgeek]

You've applied to 30 jobs and you're already thinking of giving up and going back to school?

 

[Connemara]

No, not seriously considering it. Just wanted to get some opinions.

 

[AntiHero84]

I think this would really depend on what degree you're getting and what you plan on doing afterwards.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Connemara

No, not seriously considering it. Just wanted to get some opinions.

Have you applied to www.rentboy.com ?

 

[Valor]

I'm going back to school =(

 

[EL72]

There is no real downside to doing it now. If you really want the degree, the earlier you're done the better. You'll have the rest of your life to "work", which is highly overrated anyway.

It's harder to return to studying after having been away a few years. I did it after working for 2.5 yrs after undergrad and the only benefit is that you tend to take it a lot more seriously and are more focused than at 20 yrs old after discovering how sh1tty it is to be working 9-5.

 

[Svenn]

I did it, JD, basically so I could just get schooling over with. Didn't really see the point at stopping after undergrad with my useless liberal arts degree and wasting my life in some crappy job for a few years. I thought I'd enjoy life more as 26/27 years old with a lawyer's salary rather than 21/22 on a taco bell salary. Getting 'life experience' or becoming 'unsheltered' by working a crappy job is usually only a worthy endeavor for those who have been seriously sheltered their whole life... I've worked summers since high school and didn't see any value to it.

Mind you, you still get A LOT of free time during a JD education- there's the whole summer before hand, the two summers in the middle (I graduated a semester early, and still had most of the summer off after summer classes), and the woefully long period after graduation taking the bar and waiting for results, that can be up to a year if you fail the first try (every law student, even ivy league, should be prepared for this). I never understood all this 'burning out' talk, though i didn't work that hard.

 

[Matt]

Depending on the field, I think you will get less out of the degree if you lack the real world context. I particularly believe this about MBA programs.

 

[GQgeek]

^^ I don't think anyone is suggesting that he waste time in a crappy job. Doing a JD is one thing, and I don't see a disadvantage to doing it right after undergrad, but doing an MA is something entirely different. Conne has had a couple internships so he should try to leverage those into a job in his field before he goes back to school.

In IT at least, and i'm sure it's true in many other fields, being over-educated without any real-world experience can be a liability. Generally, you want your education to match-up with your level of experience otherwise people form all sorts of negative connotations about you.

 

[cross22]

It depends on what you are trying to do. In general, for scientific fields you should go asap for continuity and to maximize your productive years. For professional degrees, you should get some real life experience before you go to grad school to make sure it is the right career for you and because that experience is important in helping you understand the material you are learning.

 

[crazyquik]

For a JD there is little reason to put it off. Schools don't give you much credit for work experience. A nice MA in between would be nice before (or during) your JD as well; econ, english (so you'll learn to write), accounting, etc. A master's in chemistry is quite the 'cherry on top' but I don't foresee that in your future.

For an MBA, real-world work experience is more highly prized.

For an masters in pub pol . . . I have no idea.

A good fellowship in-between never hurt either. Fulbright, Truman Scholar, Rhodes, or any of the lesser ones that will allow you to bum around the "semi-real world" for a while on the dime of a charitable endowment doing research or public interest work.

Leading a rifle platoon in Afghanistan is a good way to build leadership skills as well