Should I go to graduate school?
When I began thinking seriously about going to graduate school in 2020, I had a lot of questions. Most were big, interdisciplinary questions that don’t fit neatly into blog posts (which is probably why it was difficult to find answers to my questions online). As I worked through my own decision to go to graduate school, I wrote down the questions I had and the lessons I learned in no particular order.
My goal is to make this graduate school question easier for you to answer than it was for me. While I hope that my existing writing has been helpful for other aspiring academics, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that it is a bit disorganized. So with the benefit of hindsight, I’ve consolidated all of what you need and none of what you don’t.
This post includes the four essential questions that you need to ask yourself to make an informed decision about graduate school. This is still a big, interdisciplinary topic, and these questions are still a challenge to answer. But if you can answer these questions, then you can answer the ultimate question:
Should I go to graduate school?
1) What do you want to do next?
Graduate school is designed to help you progress. You may want to move into a career which requires a graduate degree. You may want to advance to a more senior role in your current industry. After gaining work experience in one field, you may want to pivot toward a different field. What all of these potential moves highlight is that you need some idea of what you want to progress toward in order to make an informed decision about graduate school.
Deciding what to do with our lives is possibly the most difficult question we face. Luckily, this question can be broken down into more manageable pieces over time. To decide whether or not you should go to graduate school, what you really need to know is what you want to do with your life next.
If you have no idea what you want to do after graduate school, then it may not be the right time to go. Gaining professional experience will help you generate ideas about what you may want to do next. If you need additional guidance, the book Designing Your Life is a great place to start. 80,000 Hours is also a good resource to help you think about the potential positive impact you could have with your career.
If you have a few ideas about what you want to do next, but those ideas are unrelated and would require different preparation, spend some time researching and ranking your options. Talk to people doing the types of jobs you are considering to help you narrow things down. Without a specific post-graduation goal, it will be difficult to determine whether or not graduate school is required to achieve your goal.
If you have a few ideas about what you want to do next, and they would all require you to attend the same type of graduate program, graduate school may be a good option for you. It is often difficult to narrow down your goals to the level of one specific job title, and this may be counterproductive: if that specific job title is difficult to find after you graduate, you may need to pursue a closely related job. If the same graduate program will prepare you for several related jobs or roles that you would like to do, this will give you more options post-graduation.
Part of determining what you want to do next is evaluating how long you intend to spend in that next career. Is it long enough to make the money and time you will invest in graduate school worthwhile? If you are currently trying out different careers for one year at a time and know that you intend to continue changing jobs that frequently, graduate school may make more sense as an investment after you’ve settled on something you want to do for the next chapter of your life (generally, for several years). If you have one idea or several closely related ideas for what you want to do in the next chapter of your life, graduate school may be worthwhile for you.
2) Is graduate school essential?
Once you have some idea (or a few related ideas) about what you want to do next, you are ready to fully consider whether graduate school is the best option to get you there. Graduate school costs both time and money that could be spent in other ways. These costs may be justified, but deciding if that is true in your particular case requires some research.
While graduate school is a common default option when people want to pivot or progress toward a new goal, it is generally not the only option available. If there is another way to achieve the type of career move you are pursuing, explore that. With the rise of online courses, MOOCs, bootcamps, and a variety of options for on-the-job training, graduate school may no longer be the most cost-effective or time-effective option for gaining skills.
However, there are still some career paths that require a graduate degree. If you’ve determined that graduate school is essential to achieve what you want to achieve in your next chapter, it’s time to think about how you can ensure that graduate school is a good investment of both your time and your money.
3) How will you pay for graduate school and where do you want to go?
Now that you have determined what you want to do next and confirmed that a specific type of graduate program is essential to get you there, you are prepared to ask the two questions people typically ask first: how will you pay for graduate school and where do you want to go to graduate school?
Considering how you will pay for graduate school before deciding where you want to go to graduate school may seem counterintuitive. However, this order helps maintain the correct perspective on cost. Cost should be one element of a comprehensive ranking tailored to your individual priorities: it should not be the one factor you use to make your decision about where to attend graduate school.
Barring unusually lucky circumstances, any graduate program you choose will cost you money. You can begin thinking about how you will pay for graduate school before deciding on any specific program. If you do not have any information on what the type of programs you want to attend cost, search for 3–5 programs and calculate the average tuition to give you a working estimate.
Next, make a plan to pay this amount. If you need to save money to fund some or all of your tuition, you can begin saving this money while deciding which graduate program you want to attend. If you need to seek scholarship or grant funding regardless of where you attend school, you can begin researching these options while you research graduate programs in more detail.
Now that you have started thinking about how you will pay for graduate school, it is time to decide where you want to go to graduate school. Building your own system to compare and rank choices will help ensure your graduate program aligns with your goals. While each person’s individual ranking will vary, there is one factor that we all have to consider regardless of our field of study or type of program.
The most important factor to consider when choosing a graduate program is whether or not that program will set you up to do what you want to do next. The point of attending graduate school is to achieve the goal you outlined while answering questions one and two above, so if a program will not prepare you or realistically allow you to achieve that goal, then it is not a good fit. If your post-grad goal requires you to pass an exam in order to obtain a license, you need to ensure that graduates from each program you consider have high pass rates on that exam. If a high number of graduates from a specific program get the type of jobs you are seeking, that program may be a good fit for you. If not, you may need to look elsewhere.
Once you’ve developed a working list of programs which provide solid preparation for the goal you are trying to achieve, you can rank this list based on additional factors that matter to you. These factors may include length of the program, cost of the program, structure of the program (courses you’ll get to take, including flexibility to choose your own courses), culture or fit, opportunity for positive impact, and location. If you have other obligations while you attend graduate school, part-time or online options may be important to you. You also need some knowledge about each program’s acceptance rates, to help you decide where to apply.
In some fields with a very limited supply of jobs, only graduates from highly-ranked graduate programs have a realistic chance of getting one of those jobs. While this is unfortunate, it is best to know this up front, so that you do not waste your time or money obtaining a degree which will not give you a realistic opportunity to compete in the job market you want to compete in after graduation. If you are considering graduate school to prepare for a career in a highly competitive field, you may need to do additional research on where people with your dream job went to school.
At this point, you have a working list of programs that would allow you to do what you want to do post-graduation. You’ve narrowed this list based on additional factors which are important to you and align with your goals. Now, you can use this comprehensive ranking to decide where to apply.
The correct number of applications to submit for graduate programs varies widely by field, so make sure to research what experts in your field recommend. From your top programs (ranked based on your individual comprehensive ranking), try to choose a few programs with different rates of acceptance. In case you do not get into the most competitive school on your list, it is good to have a solid safety school as a backup option that would still allow you to achieve your goals.
4) What do you need to do to submit a competitive application?
Now that you have a list of schools and programs where you will apply, you are ready to prepare to submit the strongest possible application for each program. If any programs on your list require prerequisites, make a plan to complete these requirements. If you will need to take an entrance exam or standardized test, begin studying for this and schedule it with enough time to take it again if necessary.
Once you’ve completed your prerequisites, make a calendar of application deadlines, start working on obtaining reference letters, and draft your personal statement. Check any other requirements you may have to meet for the program or for your visa (such as language tests). Leave yourself plenty of time to comply with all requirements in time to meet application deadlines.
If you know that you are not currently a strong candidate for the graduate programs you’ve identified, you may need to go beyond the stated minimum prerequisite requirements in order to strengthen your application. This may involve taking additional courses, gaining additional experience, or something else. Check the school’s website for information on the current class profile and admission requirements. If possible, look for Q&A events with current students, professors, and/or the admission teams at the schools you are interested in, and make plans to attend to gain additional information about what you need to do.
Because applications are expensive in terms of both money and time, it is helpful to gain as much information as you can about your chances of success before submitting an application. However, submitting an application is still the most direct way to determine whether or not you can get into a specific graduate program. If you aren’t sure, it may be worth applying to find out. Best case: you are accepted. Worst case: you now know that strengthening your application is necessary, so you can begin exploring options to do that before the next application cycle.
If you know that what you want to do next requires you to go to graduate school and you’ve done enough research to know where you want to go, how you’ll pay for it, and what you need to do to get in, you have the required knowledge to make an informed decision about graduate school.
If you decide not to invest the time and money required to go to graduate school right now, that decision is valid. There are many other things you can do with both your time and money. Realizing that those things are more important to you now is much better than realizing after you’ve entered a graduate program.
If you decide that going to graduate school is the right choice for you, then I wish you the best of luck with your applications, in your chosen graduate program, and in your next chapter.
