Did you go to graduate school?

Not yet, but I plan to…one degree at a time…

I went to grad school. I had a fairly specific idea of the kind of work I wanted to do. I even did some of that work for a while, sort of.

In a couple of weeks, when all of my assignments are done and grades are submitted, I’ll qualify for a pretty piece of paper with fancy writing on it that says Master of Arts in Italian Studies. And I’m on the waitlist for the PhD program in the fall.

Why am I doing it? I want to be a professor so I can teach at the university level and research and publish.

Would you agree that only people who have a specific career goal in mind pursue Master’s and Doctoral degrees?
No. And especially not those who are in arts programs. I’d say that at least half of my classmates don’t have a specific career plan.

Not yet. I’m playing the long game, that more job experience will serve me better in the long run. I’m not positive that I made the right choice, though it’s led to some very interesting experiences (I’m currently living in another country as a sales manager). However, my wife did choose to go to grad school and her career options are limitless, within her particularly narrow field. However, many of those options are here in the Netherlands so we will soon have the very best of both worlds!

I did go to graduate school for a Masters in Public Health because, back then, I wanted to be a physician and thought every physician should have a grounding in public health. I decided against medical school because of my graduate work. Now, I am a PhD student in Sociology here in NYC because I want be a college professor focusing on issues of gender, sexuality and race.

I was working on my MBA when I got pregnant (though the events had nothing to do with each other). I never went back to school following the birth of my child. I thought, at that time, that the advanced business degree would further my own aspirations for opportunities in the corporate environment. My undergraduate degree was in liberal arts, but my life had taken me down a business path.

I think I amassed 20 hours or so on the MBA, and I had done other post-graduate work in the education field. Every bit of my education has helped me in one way or another, but my professional life took a course of its own to which my majors and/or post-grad work had little direct applicability.

I think people pursue advanced degress for different reasons. Perhaps in the business and academic arenas there are specific goals in mind for the advanced degress, but the love of learning is a lofty pursuit, too.

@Seelix But your classmates know they want to do something right? They have a general idea? Or are they just doing it to do it?

I got a Master’s Degree in Library Science and do indeed work as a librarian.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Teaching something you’re passionate about– good move.

Those of you who have been or are going through a graduate program, how difficult would you say it is?

@janbb I never knew librarians had to have degrees! Then again, I don’t know much about what librarians do…
@picante ” but the love of learning is a lofty pursuit, too.” I am definitely lacking in that area.

@Facade I didn’t find graduate work for a Masters all that difficult but I came from being a pre-med in college and that’s no joke at NYU so I was ready, regardless. I think I am much more prepared to handle PhD level work now, it’s been many years that I’ve spent doing work around these issues, I already know the material, so to speak. However, it’s nothing to sneeze at and it will take many many years of different kind of work (coursework, fieldwork, dissertation propoal—> research—> thesis writing + presentation) and I will additionally be working on a separate certificate program in Women’s Studies. I know it will be hard.

Wow. You can do it though =)

I didn’t find the MA very tough. Not hard work, just a lot of it. Of course, it all depends what kind of program you’re in, if you’re doing a thesis or non-thesis Masters…

And of course, if you love the work, it’s not as hard as it might be for some.

@Facade I will. You and my other friends will support me, I know and you will help, :)

@Seelix That makes sense.
@Simone_De_Beauvoir Of course!

I haven’t went to grad school yet, but I have taken a few grad level courses. I’m planning to go back for my Master’s in Nursing once my husband finishes his Masters and possibly even a PhD in nursing one day after I finish my Masters. I intend to keep working as a nurse for a long time and eventually teach nursing.

@Facade – Oops, sorry, I missed your question up there.

But your classmates know they want to do something right? They have a general idea? Or are they just doing it to do it?
Yes, they do want to do something. It’s just that they’re unsure about what to do – languages can lead to all kinds of different careers in different fields, so honestly, some are killing time while figuring out what they want. Those are the ones who don’t plan to go on to do their PhDs.
One of my classmates is a man in his late 60s who’s pretty much just doing it for the hell of it.

@Seelix Yea, with that type of degree, I guess you don’t have to know exactly what you want to do. It sounds like a great one to have. And good for that older man who’s staying young =)
I’m trying to see the appeal of going to school for more than a Bachelor’s degree if you have no real career goals because for myself, having a Master’s degree in psychology would probably be a waste since I don’t want to be a counselor and I have no idea what I want to do.

Yes. I went to graduate school with a very specific idea of what I wanted to do and then didn’t do it. Still had to pay all that money back though. ;-)

Unless you believe in education for education’s sake, which I don’t think is wrong at all, but, advanced degrees take a lot of time and work and money, though you can help offset the costs by being a teaching assistant… but I’m not sure there much of a reason to put yourself through all that pain and misery unless you have a specific goal in mind, in terms of the career or vocation you want to pursue and tailor your education towards achieving that goal.

@lillycoyote Do you feel any type of way about it?

@Facade Do a masters in liberal arts.

I don’t have my masters, but lately, surprising to myself, I have been thinking about getting one.

I did a little edit up there. But hard to say. I had a hell of a lot fun and worked my ass off. I have fond memories even if grad school was the most “it was the best of times, it was worst of times” period of my life. And it wasn’t the fault of the school or the program that I didn’t pursue a career in the field I studied. I try not to have regrets. When I decided to do it my thoughts were that I didn’t want to find myself ten or twenty years down the road thinking “What if?” and regretting not having “pursued my dreams.” I’m o.k. with it. I was a little less magnanimous towards my decision about grad school in general, and that program in particular, during the 12 years it took me to pay off my student loans but that’s been done with for 5 years.

I am very consciously and purposely being vague and obscure about the program and field I studied so no need to ask me about it :-).

I’ve also thought of going back to school and either getting another masters or a PhD. but I’m not sure I’m up to it at this point and not entirely sure what I would study and until I’m sure about both things I’m holding off. And I also would like the program to be fairly close to me because I don’t want to pick up and start over somewhere else at this point in my life, and there are some very good schools in my area but nothing they have really appeals to me. I would love to find a “Propaganda Studies” program in someone’s School of Communication or Sociology or around here but haven’t found anything suitable and it is probably something I could probably put together with cooperative departments and professors but I’m just not energized enough about going back to school right now to pursue it.

Anyway, bottom line, I don’t think any education is ever wasted.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Why? I’d really like to know

Yes. I spent almost two years figuring out I was in the wrong degree program. Learned a lot though. :P

No. In fact, I didn’t graduate college at all. In retrospect, I am the type of person who would have been best to go straight to a vocational training program or overseas in some sort of volunteer program.

Anymore I feel college should be looked by most people not as a ticket to a “better job” but as further education, self satisfaction. The people who will benefit most from higher degrees are specialists and then, those in fields of actual demand.

I come from a generation of kids groomed to go to college, just because. It was assumed no matter what degree we got, there would be some better-than-average job out there for us but it didn’t turn out that way. So many people I know have master’s degrees in liberal arts and figured if they couldn’t make talent pay then they could teach but there is a glut of failed artists who want to teach. Ouch.

Yes – for all of ten weeks.

I had just started my MFA program in Design Theory when we got the call to go overseas to adopt my daughter.

Couple weeks later we were off to China for three weeks then home with a one-year-old.

I never made the time to go back. Someday maybe.

I am currently in graduate school working on a PhD in philosophy, and I entered with the specific goal of getting a job teaching philosophy.

I would not agree that only people who have a specific career goal in mind pursue graduate degrees, though I think this is a problem. Getting a graduate degree “just because” can be dangerous in a world where people are worried about you being overqualified for a job. I know people who have to leave their PhD off their résumés in order to get work.

Many people go to graduate school because they “can’t imagine doing anything else.” Well, of course they can’t. They’ve been in school for around 17 years! If we’re not going to teach imagination in schools—and it’s a shame that we do not—then let’s at least encourage people to take time off between undergraduate and graduate work to see if maybe their horizons expand after a little bit of time off. I took three years off between undergraduate and graduate work, and I think they were well worth it.

@Facade So that you don’t think about graduate school as a means to a job or a better job.

I wanted to work as a lecturer in my field. I had to complete my PhD to get a continuing position. I also very much wanted to be able to continue to research in my area of interest.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Maybe it’s my depression, but I have no interest in being in school longer than necessary (Necessary= to get a decent job). I’d love it if my viewpoint changed one day.
A lot of you are interested in doing research or lecturing or some other wonderful thing. Would you agree that you have to at least be ambitious to go to graduate school?

@Facade I would agree, yes.