Where Do You Begin When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know?
Before I started college, I didn’t know much about it.
I didn’t know much about college majors, classes, study skills, campus life, attendance policies, academic advisors, thesis advisors (or what the word thesis even meant), involvement on campus, networking, internships, interviewing, or what exactly office hours were.
Looking back, I’m sure there were people in my town or extended network that I could have talked to about college. But at the time, I wouldn’t have even known what to ask them. Put simply, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
So I showed up, tried to act like I knew what I was doing, and researched things online as they came up. Eventually, I figured out how college worked. Then I graduated, got a job in finance, and I have been working ever since.
That spring day when I graduated with the first bachelor’s degree in my family was seven years ago this month, and I’ve had a good run since then. As we’ve all been reminded recently, jobs can come and go unexpectedly. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to work (and learn new things while working) over the past seven years.
But in all that time, I haven’t been able to get the idea of going back to graduate school completely out of my head.
Because even though I went through a bit of a learning curve… I loved college.
And I loved one field of study in particular.
The End of Economics?
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t know what to major in when I went in to college.
Thankfully, I stumbled into the international business program relatively quickly. By junior year, I’d accidentally taken enough economics classes that I was two classes away from a double major. Two more classes in my favorite subject seemed like a great idea, so I ultimately graduated with a double major in international business and economics.
Then I went to work full-time in finance, and while one could reasonably argue that economics is the logic underlying all finance… that was the end of formal economics for me.
But does it have to be?
(That’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since.)
Why Do People Go to Graduate School?
Going for a graduate degree is something you have to be even more intentional about than going for an undergraduate degree.
To get into a highly-ranked, competitive graduate program, you generally have to explain in an admissions essay or personal statement why you want to go to that graduate school, what you want to study, and even what niche within the larger field of study you want to specialize in.
Effectively, you have to explain why you want to go to graduate school and what you want to do there… before you get there.
And for someone like me who doesn’t inherently understand academia, that’s a problem.
Because I don’t fully understand why people go to graduate school, much less what options might be available after going.
So aside from the fact that I’m a nerd that loves economics, it’s difficult for me to explain why I would want to go. And, “I’m a nerd that loves economics” isn’t an acceptable personal statement at most premier graduate programs.
Unfortunately.
To be clear: I picked up some knowledge about master’s and PhD programs when I was in undergrad. But to be honest, planning for future academic degrees wasn’t my top priority then. I wanted to graduate and get a job, because where I came from, that was the only reason people went to college. I could have and should have done more to take advantage of the resources I had available to me while attending classes with a department full of professors with PhDs in economics, but I did not.
At this point, continuing to berate myself for not doing a better job of thinking ahead as a 21-year-old doesn’t do us much good. So I’ve decided to quit doing that, and do something more productive instead.
This is the age of the Internet, after all… and it isn’t too late to learn something I don’t know. The only problem is, when it comes to graduate school, I’m right back where I was when I started undergrad.
I don’t know what I don’t know.
Since showing up to a graduate program then figuring it out isn’t really an option, I’m going to take a bit of a different approach to this problem than I did in undergrad.
I’m going to write about it.
Why Write About What I Don’t Know?
Since graduating with my bachelor’s degree in 2013, I’ve learned that in addition to working in finance, I like to write online. And although I have a personal blog, I think that Medium is a better fit for this particular topic.
So here I am.
I’ve learned a few things since my time as a wide-eyed undergrad. Primarily, I’ve learned that big goals take time. I’ve also learned that smart people ask a lot of questions, and they are not afraid to ask for help.
I’m well aware that I wasn’t born an ideal graduate school candidate, and at this point I’m not sure if graduate school is right for me or not. But I’m willing to do the work to find out by taking advantage of the resources I was born with. First and foremost in that pile of resources?
The Internet.
Thank you in advance, Internet friends, for your insights, ideas, questions, and thoughts on this graduate school project.
