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Constantly lurking in the shadows, the time to apply to grad school can pounce before you have time to say ""dissertation.""
In an environment where advisors will only hold students' hands as much as they are asked to, applying to grad school can be an intimidating proposition.
The best way to lessen anxiety: Do your research.
""Talk to people,"" advises Lois Beecham, assistant dean of the UW-Madison Graduate School. ""Talk to people that have done graduate study. Why did they choose the program they did, and if they had it to do over again, would they make the same decision?""
A brave new world
Susan Brastad, a UW-Madison chemistry grad student, said she was most surprised by the workload in her post-undergrad life, ""How hard it actually is and how much it consumes your life ... Classes in grad school are hard—harder than anything you've ever done.""
Nikki Burrmann, a UW-Madison chemistry grad student, also sees her current workload as more difficult, but says there is more to attending graduate school than simply increased rigor.
""It's also a lot more independent,"" she said. ""Students are given the freedom to learn as much as they want to. Nothing limits them other than themselves.""
However, this increased freedom does come with increased pressure.
""There is less of a safety net for graduate work,"" Rachel Moss, a UW-Madison chemistry grad student said. ""Sometimes you may feel like the department and school do not care whether you succeed or drop out, so you need more of a drive to succeed for your own sake.""
This sentiment is nothing unusual, according to Beecham.
""If you talk to graduate students, one of the things you will eventually hear from them is that graduate study is an isolating experience because you're the one that has to do the work,"" she said, adding many graduate students question if what they are doing is worthwhile, or will have any yield.
""It eventually becomes clear, but when
you're going through it, it's very hard to sort that out,"" Beecham said.
Additionally, she said these feelings may not surface right away. Many graduate students do not start feeling isolated until later on in their careers, when research starts to fail, or when sitting down to write a dissertation.
""It can make you feel sometimes like you're the only one that's having these problems,"" Beecham said. ""It's something that almost every student who goes through the process experiences at one point in time.""
Harvard by any other name
Because of this high possibility of frustration, Beecham believes it is very important for students to choose a graduate school not based on notoriety but on how well the student ""fits"" with the program.
Jackson Potter, a UW-Madison engineering grad student, agreed.
""You should make sure you like the people you will be working with at the particular grad school,"" he said. ""You will probably spend a lot of time with faculty and other grad students, so it's important that you get along with them. Going to a prestigious school is obviously a good thing, but if you don't like the people there, you need to decide whether the extra credentials are worth two to four years of irritation.""
(Un)natural progression
Aside from choosing a school based purely on reputation, another popular mistake is going simply because it is the next step in a progression.
""We go through kindergarten and then middle school, and then through high school and a lot of people, for them, the next step was automatically college,"" Matt Nelson, a UW-Madison career advisor said. ""The biggest thing we see as career advisors, is students who get to the end of their college careers and say, ‘I don't know what I want to do, I'm just going to continue on with my schooling.'""
Don't follow this logic for graduate school, Nelson warns, because of how much time, energy and money are required.
For love or money?
Another faulty criterion is going to grad school purely for monetary reasons.
As Charlie Michael, a UW-Madison communication arts grad student put it, ""Don't do a Ph.D. if you want to be rich, or if you want a guaranteed job when you finish. You have to do it for the love of the discipline you are studying.""
However, this may not be true for all fields. Mary Kay Zimmerman, graduate admissions and career services coordinator in the UW-Madison chemistry department, does believe that higher education often leads to increased financial success.
""The market is very tough,"" Zimmerman said. ""You really do need a Ph.D. degree if you want to make the ‘big bucks.'""
No experience necessary
However, Nelson said he has met with several students in his career who went to grad school to make themselves ""more marketable,"" only to learn that employers may be looking for other qualifications.
""There are some instances where going to graduate school doesn't increase your job prospects at all,"" he said. ""There are organizations and companies out there who would much rather have someone with an undergraduate degree with some experience, rather than someone who comes out of a graduate program, but gets no experience.""
According to Erica Salkin, undergraduate advisor for the School of Journalism, another benefit of getting experience is taking the time to discover exactly what specialization within a field is the most appropriate to the student.
""If you'd asked a lot of [journalism grad students], ‘what would you have studied if you had gone directly on from your undergraduate?' versus ‘what are you studying now?' You're generally going to find these are very different answers,"" she said. ""And that's because getting into the professional world really helps you shape what you want to study at the graduate level.""
But experience is not needed for all fields. According to Salkin, it may be preferable for journalism, communication arts and business majors, while political science or sociology majors would most likely be encouraged to go immediately to graduate school.
Beecham also points to engineering and nursing as careers that might benefit from taking a few years to work, while majors where the expectation is that one will take up teaching—like Slavic languages and literature or history, for example—may benefit more from immediate immersion.
Ultimately, however, the debate over how long to wait before going to grad school, and how necessary it is to go at all should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
""I had a professor at my undergraduate college that said that everyone should go to grad school ... that those who didn't wouldn't succeed in life,"" Burrmann said. ""Another professor said that no one should go to grad school. The truth is definitely in between. It really is a personal choice, and, although others may influence it, you shouldn't let anyone force you into making a choice you won't live with.""
Brastad agreed with Burrman and stressed the importance of enjoying the journey.
""Make sure it's something that you really want to do—it's too much work and stress to do it if you don't really want it,"" she said. ""Go for the experience and because you want to learn—not as a means to an end.""
